The Gilded Throne
by crazy4rwriting
Summary: Luck is a funny thing; you never know when it's going to run out, and you never know whether it's good or bad until it's all done and you look back on it. Sit in and discover Azula's newfound perspective on luck and the Gaang's on the Fire Princess as they find what was lost by being lost. Eventual AU, Sokkla, Zutara, Taang. Rated T for future adult content. Rating may rise.
1. Prologue

**Summary:** Luck is a funny thing; you never know when it's going to run out. Another thing about luck is that you never know whether it's good or bad until it's all said and done, and you look back and realize, "Hey, that wasn't so bad!" Set during Book 2, eventual AU.

**Main Pairings:** Sokkla, Zutara, and Taang

**Word Count:** 1,538

**Genre:** Action/Adventure/Romance

**Rating:** T, but it may rise...

**A/N:** Hi, everybody! I know this is really short, but it's only a prologue, and I was only trying to break 1000 words, something I succeeded in doing. If it seems a bit abrupt and strange, that's good, because it's supposed to be that way. Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender (NOTICE THE BOLD FONT!)**

* * *

**The Gilded Throne**

**Prologue**

* * *

**Katara on Dire Situations:**

How could things possibly get any worse? That question seems to be asked a lot lately in my group of friends. After all, when traveling with the Avatar, crazy things are bound to happen. In fact, not a day goes by, really, without something remotely detrimental happening. It just wouldn't be the same without a crisis in progress at least once a day!

Even so, nothing could have possibly prepared me for this. I mean, I always thought that Appa getting kidnapped and Zuko chasing us around the world were pretty awful things to have happen to our little gang. Actually, if someone had told me a few months ago that I would be traveling with the Avatar, and these things would actually happen to me, I would have laughed and said they were crazy.

Now, though, I feel like I'm the one who's crazy. Here I am, stuck with one of my arch enemies, one of the most dreadful people in the entire world! How could things possibly get any worse?

* * *

**Zuko on Jokes:**

Every day, back when I was traveling with a group of loyal sailors, they would go about their duties, pulling up the anchors, setting the ship on course, and doing their "sailor" things. All the while, they would chatter amongst themselves like busy squirrel-rabbits up in their trees. Their words would be often punctuated (rather sparingly, in my opinion) with laughter.

I would turn on them and reprimand them for their merriment amidst my moping, irate that my noble crew would dare laugh while in my presence. After all, how did I know whether they were laughing at me?

Of course, it was much more likely they were laughing at me than my uncle's tea jokes, though some of those were quite funny. Like the sailors, Uncle enjoyed telling jokes, but even his best jokes, which usually have the other sailors in stitches, haven't made me laugh in years.

In a bout of irony, I've begun to learn how to tell jokes myself. Most of them aren't very funny and don't really catch on with Uncle, though he says I've gotten better. I think he may be lying.

But I discovered I was stuck with her, I laughed for the first time in over three years, a derisive, snorting laugh but a laugh nonetheless. And let me tell you: the way her blue eyes narrowed and burned with rage like my sister's fire was a lot more fulfilling than any joke I could have made.

* * *

**Toph on Friends:**

As a little girl, I was sheltered—at least, that's what my parents call it. I call it imprisonment. I wasn't allowed to see the children of other nobles. Heck, I wasn't even allowed outside of the house on most days without an entourage of guards around. My father said it was for my own safety, and my mother calmly explained to me that I was blind, and I wasn't like the other children. So, I wasn't treated like a child. I couldn't play, I couldn't come and go as I pleased, and most importantly, I couldn't make friends.

I tried my best to be friendly with some of the younger servants and some of the servants' children, but a group of scary-looking guards doesn't exactly scream, "Hey, let's be best friends!"

For the most part, I spent a lot of time alone, until I discovered the badger-moles. They were my first friends. They were blind, too, so they didn't judge me. Instead, they helped me to discover how much I loved earthbending and that I could see, even if I was blind in one way.

After I learned earthbending, I heard about the Earth Rumble tournament, and I knew that I had to participate. I was pretty good at bending, after all, and I had nothing else to do. My first win sent a thrill through me that resounded through my entire being. It was such a great feeling that I began to sneak out of the house by bending my way through the wall and going to the tournament every week.

This tradition started when I was eleven, and it ended when I turned twelve. Aang became my second friend. He, Snoozles, and Sugar Queen were my friends, for sure—or, at least, that's what I think is going to happen eventually. I've never had human friends before, so I'm not exactly sure when I'm allowed to call them my friends.

Twinkletoes himself is strange to me. He's not like the other boys I've met, like Snoozles, male servants, my father, and the other Earth Rumble competitors. He's softer somehow. It almost makes me excited to consider him my friend, to learn more about him, and to figure out why he's so soft. Of course, I'd never tell him that...

* * *

**Aang on Acceptance:**

Being accepted is hard, especially when you're a walking contradiction. I mean, I wouldn't exactly know—about the walking contradiction part, at least—but I do know that it's hard to accept anyone, especially a walking contradiction, into your group of friends. That said, I can sort of understand her, in theory…In theory, I should be able to be best friends with the girl, if being "outcasts" is something we have in common, right?

Wrong. So wrong. How is it possible that someone so similar to me, someone who doesn't have many friends, who's the same age as me, who's a walking contradiction, just like I feel like I am sometimes, is so difficult to understand? She's a mystery to me, a puzzle, an enigma, shadowed and veiled so beautifully with walls of harsh, foreboding stone that I have to find out more.

Don't get me wrong; in no way am I saying that she is beyond my comprehension. She's one of the bluntest people I've ever met in my entire life. She tells it like it is, and she isn't afraid to criticize, and for that, I respect her. She never holds back; she stands strong, and I admire her for that.

Even so, admiration isn't enough. Respect isn't enough. Acceptance isn't enough. No, I want to understand the girl from the swamp. I want to know Toph Beifong.

* * *

**Azula on Luck:**

It's strange how my luck manages to work at times. My father always said that I was born lucky, and it's true. I was born on the hottest Summer Solstice in over two hundred years—at high noon. I was practically born walking, talking, and, of course, firebending.

However, I was raised not to rely on luck, to only rely on my own abilities and skills. I was raised to stand on my own, to want to do things by myself, a master of independence from the day I started breathing.

I didn't need luck; I had something better and worthier: talent. One of my father's many mantras, after all, is, "If you want something done right, get your indolent body off of your gilded throne and do it yourself!"

That mantra itself was one of the reasons I found it especially ironic when father asked me, his prized daughter, his Blue Dragon, to capture the Avatar and arrest my pathetic brother. Obviously, my father was just far too up on his "gilded throne" to do it himself.

So, I, being the loyal, abiding daughter I was, expressed to him that I would be honored to attempt such a task. And now, here I am, hunting the Avatar and armed with not only my superior wits and bending but also a master plan to topple the Earth Kingdom Capitol.

Unfortunately, after a recent turn of events, my luck has decided to change. I supposed, at the time, that after a life time of being lucky, my luck would have to run out at some point, and it chose then to flee, like a coward. So be it. I would show my luck that I didn't need its timorous grace.

* * *

**Sokka on Being Lost:**

Funny, isn't it? How things seem so normal one minute and then just abruptly change…How the sky can be blue, the birds can sing, and the sun can rise like any other day, and it almost seems like the world is moving on, yet you're not moving. It's moving around you, and you're left out, not a part of it. You're out of the loop, trapped within your own mind to crumble away, and you can do nothing but watch.

The whirling sands of time manage to erode away everything, all the pain, torture, mistrust, and, eventually, all of us…I forget who said that, but whoever said it was both stupid and correct at the same time…Funny how that happens, right?

Well, that's what happened to me. One minute, we were headed to Ba Sing Se. The next, my friends were gone, and everyone was gone. She was the only one left, the vicious, elegant creature who haunted my waking moments and my nightmares. Princess Azula of the Fire Nation, the terrifyingly beautiful monster with equally beautiful firebending, was the only one left. This is where my story begins.


	2. Chapter 1: On the Run

**Summary:** Luck is a funny thing; you never know when it's going to run out, and you never know whether it's good or bad until it's all said and done, and you look back and realize, "Hey, that wasn't so bad!" Set during Book 2, eventual AU.

**Main Pairings:** Sokkla, Zutara, and Taang

**Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender (NOTICE THE BOLD FONT!)**

* * *

**The Gilded Throne**

**Chapter 1: On the Run**

* * *

**Azula: **

_It's not every day that the sun shines so brightly._ That was my first thought upon peering out through the open flaps of my crimson tent. It seemed that Agni himself knew something was coming, and he was giving me the sun's glorious light as a sign. At least, that was what a Fire Sage would most likely say.

The air itself was dry and calm, but any firebender could feel tension lingering behind that tranquility, as though something ominous was coming. It was early, too, I remembered as the sun peeked through the gap in the foothills of the mountainous Earth Kingdom. I could feel its rays warming my, the energy of Agni suffusing my whole body, even though they were only the faded crimson of early morning.

Mai had Ty Lee had fallen asleep earlier this morning after we fled our previous campsite due to a platypus-bear attack. The three of us were exhausted, more so because we had been running for almost a week now, just about since we'd last seen the Avatar and his silly friends. Then again, if this was how the Avatar's friends felt on a daily basis, it was no wonder their group couldn't fight as efficiently as I had previously suspected.

Upon awakening this morning, it was clear that the signs of a platypus-bear invasion had not yet manifested themselves, so I felt relatively confident in the fact our spot in this clearing was safe from assailants. Somehow, though bone-weary and confused due to our rapid, narrow escape, we had managed to find this meadow in which we could slumber for the night while we regrouped.

Ty Lee was sleeping a fitful sleep in the tent she shared with Mai. During the attack (which included both platypus-bears and wasp-vultures), we had been ambushed while looking for food. I had decided upon the strategy of having Ty Lee distract the group of bears, while Mai and I salvaged what we could from camp, before the three of us fled on foot, for our basilisk-lizards had decided to escape a few days earlier, and as such, we had been making abysmal time ever since.

Now, however, it seemed that things were finally becoming relaxed. We still were not certain of the whereabouts of the Avatar and his pitiful friends, but I knew that they were on the trail of their lost bison—what a beautiful creature, that bison! That probably meant that they were headed to the Earth Kingdom Capitol of Ba Sing Se.

With a small smile at the calm ambience, I pushed my way out of the tent, looking around the campsite. The embers of what was left of the campfire were still smoldering, flickering the same shade of red as that which the rising sun was staining the sky. I took a breath of the air around me. It smelled like dew and times past, old and yet remarkably new.

As my sharp, keen gaze meandered lazily about the area, my ears were trained to the woods. No matter how cozy and soft this meadow and the forest seemed, I knew that I could never forget that it was Earth Kingdom territory. And as long as a war was still happening, a firebender would never be safe on enemy soil.

* * *

**Toph: **

I forget why we were fighting this time. Twinkletoes had started it—that much I knew. After all, Twinkletoes _always _started it. The fact I can't remember why the fight happened doesn't change anything. All that really matters is what happened _because _of the fighting, anyway.

"Well, I wouldn't want to be stuck with you if you were the last person on Earth!" I shrieked at him.

"So? I wouldn't want to be stuck with _you_ if you were the last person in the entire _universe!_ You're so mean to me, and you're not even that good of a teacher!" he shouted.

Gusts of wind whipped through my hair as a result of the Avatar's anger. I was mad now, and I was hurt, so I rapidly retorted. "You can't even insult right," I shot back, despite the fact it probably wasn't a good idea to provoke him further. "You're pathetic, Twinkletoes!"

"I'm pathetic? What about you? I mean, you're so…" His voice trailed off.

I paused in my insulting, too, turning my head to gaze at him with my sightless eyes. "What, Aang?" I asked him, a bit impatient.

"Toph, do you know where we are?" Twinkletoes asked slowly, his childish voice, which was normally quite happy, quavering slightly. I could feel his heart-rate rising, and I knew he was asking me because he didn't know himself.

I probed outward with my feet, shifting slightly, trying to feel the earth around me. A few vibrations surrounded us, but they only seemed to be the chattering heartbeats of squirrel-rabbits or their scampering footsteps. A few birds twittered about in their nests, which rested on the tangled branches of the surrounding trees. The trees themselves gave off strange vibrations, as if warning us to go away.

The whole area felt unfamiliar to me, I realized with a jolt of apprehension. It was a rocky section of forest, with a few dips in the trees that would make good places to hide. The trees and underbrush, which made distinctive vibrations, seemed to be quite thick, and I knew instantly that we were lost. Hopelessly lost.

"Twinkletoes, I think we're lost," I told him hesitantly.

The wind that blew through the strange forest right then was so cold that it seemed to chill every bone in my body.

* * *

**Zuko**:

Uncle was asleep. It seemed that lately, he was always sleeping. His snores echoed softly through the tent the two of us were sharing. I sighed as I awoke, stretching my body and trying to shake off the blanket of exhaustion that seemed to be coating my muscles. It was a little past sunrise, I realized as I stretched. My stomach rumbled a bit. Food isn't usually my thing, but the influx of chi in the morning always makes me more than ready for breakfast.

Slowly and quietly, so as not to wake my sleeping uncle, I pushed my way from the tent and surveyed the area. Uncle and I had made it to a more mountainous part of the Earth Kingdom, the foothills of Ba Sing Se's region, to be more exact. The two of us were camping out on a rocky outcropping not far from a stream and strange forest.

My uncle had told me yesterday that the local villagers called the forest "The Lost Forest." Then, he proceeded to tell me one of the most boring ghost stories I've ever heard. I mean, I've listened to Mai's stories; I think I know what I'm talking about. The story basically went: A couple went into the forest and never came out.

When he'd told it, I rolled my eyes and said, "Go to bed, Uncle."

Even so, the shadows of the forest that morning did make me a little uneasy. When the wind blew through the trees, it almost sounded like a voice, whispering and cautious, yet laced with venom, as if the forest was warning travelers to stay away.

As the bushes rustled from something I suspected was not the breeze, I wondered what kinds of creatures dwelled within the glade. After listening to the crying wind once more and looking at the trees' gnarled trunks, which looked like old, wicked faces, I decided that I didn't want to find out. Whatever lived in there wasn't pleasant.

* * *

**Sokka:**

"Don't go in there," the old woman had insisted yesterday. "It's called the Lost Forest around here, and it's full of dangerous creatures. No one who goes in comes out alive the next morning. It's a maze."

"I think I'll be fine," I'd replied haughtily, meeting her gaze squarely as I took the vegetables I'd paid for.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," she'd responded, shaking her head.

As I'd walked away, chuckling a little bit, she'd sighed, a weary sigh that sounded as though she'd done it a thousand times. The wind blew through the chimes on her cart at that moment, causing them to sigh, too, singing a song of mystery and longevity.

I scanned the expanse of trees around me, wondering what I'd been thinking at the time. So what if I'd been traveling with the Avatar? So what if he was the bridge between this world and the Spirit World? How did any of that matter when he wasn't here right now?

He and Toph had been gone when I'd awoken (probably arguing again, like they always were), and Katara was still asleep. At first, when I'd gotten up, it struck me as odd that she was still asleep. After all, Katara was quite an early riser on most days. Regardless of her possible change in sleeping habits, I was all alone in the forest. Obviously, Aang, Toph, and Katara were still here, but, for all it mattered, they could be all the way in the South Pole.

A twig cracked somewhere close by, causing me to jump in my seat on a rock. As I rubbed my sore butt, I listened to the flutter of birds' wings as they took flight. I lifted my head, tilting it back so that I could see the sky, so I could see the little black specks that were dispersing through the air and eventually settled in a new tree. I watched them wishfully.

I missed Appa, all right? He was a fuzzy, adorable giant bison, and I missed him. I missed the way he'd always lick my face, warm and wet, like a rag, when I brought him some heads of cabbage for breakfast, and I missed the way he growled like gravel rubbing together when we were about to take flight. I missed his steadfast nature and his love for not only Aang, whom he'd known for a long time, but also us, whom he'd just met.

And, even without the fact I missed Appa dearly, this was still one of the most inconvenient things to have happen to us. Now, we would be even further behind schedule. Plus, I was having trouble finding out where we were on the map. We'd just left the desert, but even I didn't know which part of the desert we'd left; had we left from the east? The west? The north? I knew where we were going: To Ba Sing Se, of course, to Appa, to the Earth King, but how to get there? That was another story.

* * *

**Aang:**

It seemed terribly unfair that I'd gotten lost with none other than Toph. After all, I'd just been whining about how much I disliked her, and now I was _trapped_ with her? It seemed like something that would happen to Sokka, not me! I mean, first Appa and now _this?!_ I was the Avatar; weren't_ good_ things supposed to happen to me?

Shaking those thoughts away (which I knew wouldn't help me anyway), I looked around the unfamiliar forest. Quickly, I noticed that all of the trees, though individual and therefore unique, seemed to blend into one entity. They all looked quite similar; they all had mossy, tangled trunks, dense, emerald-colored leaves, which threw the leaf-coated forest floor into soft shadows, and branches covered in thin, leafy vines. A few bushes lent the forest a full look, and I supposed that if one looked at it from the air, one would see nothing but a thick, dark smudge of green on the painted landscape.

I wondered how large the forest was. The branches of the trees stuck out dangerously, clearly poised to ensnare any unwary bird that was also trying to escape the wilderness. I shuddered at the thought of also being ensnared, and then I realized that I didn't even have my glider with me. I had no way to fly, no way to escape this forest.

Then, I looked to Toph. Her murky eyes scanned the landscape, though I knew it was just her way of going through the motions. I felt her trying to earthbend against the ground, and I realized that she had barely taught me the basics of earthbending. Maybe, just maybe, she would in the future—if we got out of this Spirits-forsaken forest.

Again, my gaze flitted towards her like a nervous bumble-fly. I had wanted to get to know her before, so why not now? Maybe, I could get to know her now, and with this time we spent together, we would be able to become better acquainted. After all, I knew Sokka and Katara, but Toph Beifong was as mysterious and unfamiliar to me as this shaded forest.

I turned to her, clearing my throat, and said, "Hey, Toph." So began the arduous task of getting to know my new friend.

* * *

**Katara:**

The flickering of the orange flames was haunting to me as I stared into their depths in my half-awake, half-sleeping state, and I suppose that these thoughts of fire also haunted me in my dreams as well. The flames would eventually take shape before my eyes, morphing into beautiful, mysterious forms before flickering out.

Constantly, they would transform into dragons, all with shimmering orange scales and molten gold eyes. Suddenly, the dragon changed again, turning into a man's form, strong and purely masculine. I gasped as I noticed the face. That face looked so familiar...

It was handsome, with pure gold eyes that shone through the fire. I felt compelled to reach out to the flames, against my best interests, to reach out and touch them. So I did, a new feeling instantly coming over me as I stood with my hands engulfed by the wicked fire. A shudder radiated through my dream body, the movement running all the way down to my bones. Even in the wake of such a tremor, I could feel its echo radiating across my skin where my hand had come in contact with the flames.

At my touch, the face warped again, shifting into the form of a smile. The golden eyes flickered, shining with such a beauty that I was taken aback. This time, the flames reached out to me, and I braced myself, expecting the pain that would come from touching fire. Instead, a feeling of absolute peace washed over me. Within my strange state, I could feel something tugging at my chest, but I was unsure of what it was. Then, looking back at the flames, the face, the way he was smiling at me...And that was when I recognized him, and I knew that seeing him in a dream was only the beginning.

* * *

**Azula:**

A rustle in the trees distracted my attention. I tensed, my body automatically crouching into a bending stance, prepared like the strike of a rat-viper. I listened to the woods around me...Not a sound came that was out of the ordinary for the forest. I quickly relaxed, realizing how stupid I must have looked, standing alone in a meadow in a bending stance with no one around.

I chuckled a little bit when I thought of it. How paranoid of me! As if anyone could sneak up on me, Princess Azula, the Pride of the Fire Nation. I was a master of stealth, the empress of espionage! There was no way—

My thoughts trailed off as the rustling returned.

I turned, slowly, back to the woods. My eyes scanned the green bushes more carefully, and I suddenly felt that their glistening, dew-coated leaves were hiding daggers and swords of enemy soldiers. The sounds of movement continued. This time, it sounded closer, whatever it was, and it sounded like there was more than one thing coming.

As I listened, I made out several whispers and realized what was going on. We were being ambushed! I sprinted back to camp, abruptly tearing open Mai and Ty Lee's tent. A beam of sunlight illuminated the dusty air, and I instantly made out the hunched, sleeping shapes of my two friends.

"Girls," I hissed, "wake up!"

Mai's body instantly jerked alive from its previous state of inactivity. Her groggy, silver eyes met mine, a baleful glint in them at the way I'd oh-so-rudely awakened her. But I didn't have time for manners.

"We're being ambushed," I told Mai bluntly, not bothering with pleasantries (like _good morning_, for example).

Before she could respond, I swept from the tent. The sun was fully risen now, its rays incisive to my newly-adjusted eyes. But it also filled me with power, a newfound sense of what was going on in the world. With my mind sharpened, I noticed something about this ambush. The soldiers, obviously Earth Kingdom, were behaving much more stealthily than any of the other Earth Kingdom soldiers I had ever seen or heard about.

That was when I realized where we were. My map, a detailed object with a list of the Earth Kingdom troops' locations and several towns for which I knew I had to look out, had gotten soaked a few days earlier after our frantic run from a pack of platypus-bears. But even so, I knew where most of the dangers were, and many lurked in this general area, most notably a nearby Earth Kingdom town in which many soldiers resided.

I rapidly peered through the trees, my heart nearly stopping as the bushes rustled, sounds of whispered voices and commands being hissed permeating through the bushes. My eyes widened, and my body coiled, suddenly tight with a tension to which I was not accustomed: fear.

* * *

**Toph:**

"Well, let's look on the bright side!" Twinkletoes said happily.

I wanted so much to hit him at that moment, but it probably wouldn't have shut him up. In fact, knowing my luck, hitting him would have started the airbender on a long-winded (get it, _wind_ed?) rant on how violence like hitting doesn't solve anything. Barf.

So instead, I settled for blowing my bangs out of my face with a small groan of frustration and turning my head to him (more out of reflex than actual necessity). "What bright side?" I asked him.

"At least we're not lost in the woods alone!" I could _hear _the smile in his childish voice, and I was filled with the intense urge to punch Twinkletoes all over again.

Hadn't he heard the first words to come from his mouth?! We were _lost in the woods_! What did it matter whether we were alone? In fact, if we hadn't been together, we never would have gotten lost in the first place! I wanted to throw all of these things at him, but I knew it would be no use. Some people were just _born _optimistic. It wasn't like I wasn't, but it just seems kinda useless when you're around someone like Aang. He sorta takes up all the happiness and uses it for himself, and I don't feel like wasting the energy being so enthusiastic if there's someone to do it for me.

Either way, I knew that this time I spent with Aang was going to lead to a change in both of us. Whether this change was going to be good was still kind of up in the air. Maybe instead of changing for the better, we would change for the worse-like, you know, into a pile of guts and bones for the vulture-wasps to pick at...

Well, I've never considered myself to be a very optimistic person...And what was the point of starting now? The only thing that concerned me at this point was finding a way to survive and then finding a way to get back to Snoozles and Sugar Queen, but knowing them...well, things probably were just fine. After all, what kind of trouble could they get into if they were together?

* * *

**Sokka:**

Looking up at the sky, I had to admit something: it was really pretty at this time of day, with the sun shining through the trees and causing the mossy ground below to be bathed in such a gentle, almost speckled-

...Wait!

Hadn't I just been at camp? I mean, I know I'd been walking a little bit, just as a sub-conscious movement...But looking around, I realized, with mounting terror, that none of the area looked remotely familiar at all! Where was the campsite?

Suddenly, my feet began to run, and I wasn't sure why, but my body followed regardless. I knew that I had to get _there_, but I wasn't sure _where_ I was going. As I swerved to avoid a tree, I wondered if Katara was okay.

My legs started to ache, and my lungs started to burn, but, breathing in the forest air, smelling the smell of moss and leaf mold, hearing the sounds of the living things, the throbbing of life in a blur of green, I truly felt alive.

Then, suddenly, I didn't. I felt my stomach jump, and I felt my body lurch forward, and I was able to register that while my upper half was still moving, my lower half wasn't. I stopped briefly, my arms flailing wildly in the air, my chest hovering above the ground. And then, I fell.

One minute, I had been running so fast my feet were barely touching the forest floor below me, and the next...

_FWAP! _

I was on the ground, the world blurring wildly around me in a smear of green mush. My neck was aching for no reason, and I'd landed in something wet and squishy. What had I tripped over? And why had I slipped? My whole body felt as if it was paralyzed, tangled up in something almost slimy. _What the...? _

Then, I felt the thorns digging into my skin and through my tunic, and I knew: _I was screwed._

**_TO BE CONTINUED..._**

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**A/N: **Hello again, everyone! The first person POV will only be until they all meet up. You could say that this is a secondary prologue. By the way, I just want to set out some time things: For everyone, time-wise, it's right after Appa gets kidnapped-with a few changes!

Also, thanks to _LifeTimesWorth, Zso, Meg, _and, of course, _Larissa _for your reviews of the prologue. **I'm opening up Q&As to either me or the characters, so if you have something that's just nagging at you about any character's current situation or about what I have planned for anyone, please, ask in a review! **There's no guarantee that I'll answer every single question; I don't want to spoil everything, after all! Anyways, thanks for reading-and reviews are much-appreciated!

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_Review Responses (for anonymous reviewers):_

_Meg:_ Thank you so much! I was trying to avoid abruptness in my story, so that's really great! I hope you enjoyed this chapter just as much (if you're still reading this!).

_Larissa:_ Thanks so much for your review, girlfriend! Your writing serves as an inspiration to us all. I am so flattered that you loved my story more than shoes! And 70% off? You bargain hunter, you! I absolutely adore you, girl!

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**As of 9-1...A series of apologies**

**Edit: **Oh my gosh! I can't believe no one told me that this entire chapter somehow wound up in bold! FFN must have messed up my formatting! That's absolutely ridiculous that it was up there like that for almost six months! I am so embarrassed! Yeesh, no wonder not many people read this! Ack! Thanks to Dakota 96 for pointing that out for me! Next time, someone needs to tell me something like that! I mean, my gosh. Grrrr.

**Edit 2: **I noticed a major plot hole when I reread this fic; I realized that, undoubtably, the only thing on Aang's mind at this point is finding Appa, and Sokka's only goal is to find the Earth King. Anyway, I hope you all forgive me for that major slip!

**Edit 3: **Just in case it wasn't clear, Sokka gets "clothes-line'd" by a vine and then falls into a thorn bush. After all, torturing poor Sokka just never gets old! :)


	3. Chapter 2: The Way Out

**Summary:** Luck is a funny thing; you never know when it's going to run out. Another weird thing about luck is that you never know whether it's good or bad until it's all said and done, and you look back and realize, "Hey, that wasn't so bad!" Set during Book 2, eventual AU.

**Main Pairings:** Sokkla, Zutara, and Taang

**WARNINGS: **AU, OOC (I prefer character-growth, but I suppose it depends on how you look at it), Crack pairings, Zutara (a Kataang friend of mine told me to write that), references to homosexuality and incest.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender (NOTICE THE BOLD FONT!)**

* * *

**_Previously in _The Gilded Throne...**

**_Sokka:_**

_One minute, I was running so fast my feet were barely touching the forest floor below me, and the next..._

_FWAP! _

_I was on the ground, the world blurring wildly around me in a smear of green mush. My neck was aching for no reason, and I'd landed in something wet and squishy. What had I tripped over? And why had I slipped? My whole body felt as if it was paralyzed, tangled up in something almost slimy. _What the...?

_Then, I felt the thorns digging into my skin and through my tunic, and I knew:_ I was screwed.

* * *

**The Gilded Throne**

**Chapter 2: The Way Out**

* * *

**Katara:**

Sometimes, when you awaken from a dream, the movement is slow, almost as though you're still asleep. Other times, your body jerks awake, a sudden movement, so unpredictable in its nature that you're instantly alert-in that groggy, curtain-y sense. Still other times, you drift back and forth, half-awake, half-asleep, suspended in the gray dawn of new thoughts buzzing through your head like annoying mosquito-flies.

That was how I felt that morning, my mind full of a strange yearning for the flames of my dream once more. Something within my very core wanted to remember the way the fire had made me feel...Even though it was Zuko's face I had dreamed about.

_Of course, _I reasoned with myself, _Zuko probably showed up in my dream because he's a firebender._

_But then, what does it mean that I'm having dreams about fire?_

I sighed as I rose from my sleeping bag, slowly lifting my still-smoldering body from the comfy furs. The first thing I noticed was the quiet. I could hear the chirping of birds in the thicket, the occasional movement of animals through the trees, but other than that, it was quiet.

I couldn't remember much from last night; it was one of those mornings. I heard a few movements in the bushes nearby and sighed. Sokka, Aang, and Toph were probably still asleep, and I would probably have to wake them up myself. It seemed that I was always the mother of the group, which was strange, considering Sokka was two years older than me.

Even so, Aang typically awoke early in order to meditate or help me fix breakfast. It was usually just Toph and Sokka who slept in. With a small frown at the fact Aang was most likely still asleep, I pushed my tent flaps open. Lately, the young Avatar had taken to sleeping beneath the stars, and since it was the dry season, and he couldn't catch pneumonia from such actions, I allowed him to do so. Toph slept in her earthen tent, and Sokka's stomach usually woke him up before he wanted to, but he generally slept under the stars with Aang, enjoying the peace of the creatures in the bushes and entertaining thoughts of yummy, meaty foods.

As I looked around the campsite, my eyes quickly found Toph's "tent" and Aang's sleeping mat, but to my confusion, my bother's sleeping bag had disappeared. Upon further scrutiny, I also noticed that there was no occupant in any of the three sleeping spots. A wave of fear coursed through me. They were gone! All three of my traveling companions, my friends, had disappeared from the campsite.

Just as I began to panic, though, I realized that...Well, that didn't make an incredible amount of sense. After all, people didn't just disappear-did they?

"Guys!" I said, trying not to be too loud and obnoxious (something Toph would make fun of me over) as I walked around the site.

Continually, I waited for Toph to jump out and laugh, for someone to tell me this was a joke, for Aang's happy chortling and Sokka's sporadic chuckling, for Toph to smirk and say, "We really got you that time, Sugar Queen!"

But after a few minutes of fruitless searching, my heart dropped to my stomach with the realization: Aang, Toph, and Sokka were gone.

* * *

**Zuko (Retrospectively):**

Part of me wondered how such an old man could do it, could possess such power (that which I would never know) at his very fingertips. A wave of envy coursed through me, as strange as it was because of my youth and his decrepit age, as I watched Uncle harness the lightning, taming the hissing, sparking, flashing beast with nothing but his fingertips and shooting the monster into the sky. His hands gently fell to his sides in a movement of release, and he breathed deeply, as if the air reached his very core, as thunder drummed steadily in the distance, rumbling as the lightning-beast, disgruntled, found its cage.

Intense power was something that, at that point, I felt I would never know. It felt unattainable, untouchable. My uncle was truly astounding, a master of his art. It made me wonder if, someday, I would ever be that strong, that powerful, both feared and revered at once.

Thinking of fear and reverence (mostly fear) caused my thoughts to roam to my sister, the prodigy. She had neither age nor experience on her side, yet I knew that if she wanted to, she could easily best even Uncle in firebending.

My thoughts were interrupted as Uncle Iroh turned, as if he'd noticed me watching him, and smiled at me. How was it that he possessed so much strength, yet when he finished and smiled at me, it was easy to forget?

But then, seeing Azula smile the way she had as a little girl probably would have made me forget about who she really was, _what_ she really was. That was most likely why Azula didn't beam like that anymore; although it probably would have provided a tactical advantage for her, she hated, above all else, to be underestimated by anyone for any reason. She liked the fear, fed off of it, even. I guess that was what made it so easy to forget that, beneath it all, she was human, and she was still my little sister.

"Nephew," Uncle said, interrupting my thoughts, "what has caused you to awaken so early on this fine morning?" Even when saying such relatively mundane words, Uncle was all smiles.

"I don't know," I said lamely. "It just felt like that kind of morning, so I got up."

Ignoring the stupidity of my answer, Uncle gave me a pat on the back, a gesture that always sort of annoyed me. But, at the same time, I was grateful for the affection.

"Well, Prince Zuko-" That was another thing about him that both annoyed me and made me feel appreciative: calling me Prince, even when he knew full well that that title didn't belong to me. Not anymore. "-I'm feeling a bit hungry." He stretched his arms back with a grunt.

"Then perhaps you should make something to eat," I said in an admittedly rude tone, feeling a bit put off by my Uncle's overly-cheerful attitude so early in the morning.

"That's just the problem, Prince Zuko," said Uncle, and I recognized, almost instantly, his whining voice. It was only slightly different from his pleading voice, but the penalty for not listening to him was even greater than if he was pleading. "We don't have the right ingredients to prepare breakfast this morning."

"What about rice gruel?" I asked snappishly, growing tired of my uncle's games.

"We're out of rice," he admitted meekly, "and there's no telling how far it'll be to the market."

I groaned quite loudly and rudely, pinching the bridge of my nose between my thumb and index finger (a habitual action of mine), feeling a headache coming on. "Then what is there left to eat?" I growled.

"Not much, Prince Zuko. We do have enough flour to make tack, but without any nuts or meat of some sort, it doesn't contain very many nutrients at all, not enough for a growing boy like you," said Uncle, frowning.

Why he worried about me, I had no idea. I was practically an adult and could therefore take care of myself!

"What do you want me to do about it?" I demanded, still feeling a bit indignant at his worry of me, even though I knew he didn't do it to be malicious.

In response, my uncle's eyebrows raised, and his eyes opened slightly wider as his face took on its "innocent" look. "Why, I don't know, nephew. Perhaps you could go into the forest there and collect some lychee nuts for the tack, while I prepare the tack itself." His smile widened. "And then we could eat yummy lychee nut tack for days!"

I sighed, trying to come up with an excuse not to go. If I could help it, I wanted to stay right here at the campsite, as cowardly as it sounded. But then, who knew what these creepy woods held? That was it! There was my excuse.

"Uncle," I said, trying to make my voice sound wary, "I don't know about this. Didn't you say last night that a lot of people have mysteriously disappeared in this forest?"

Iroh chuckled. "That was just an old ghost story, Prince Zuko! Don't tell me that my big, scary, strong nephew is afraid of a small excursion to the woods for lychee-nuts for his poor, aging uncle!"

And that was the last word on the subject. After a little bit more haggling from my "poor, aging uncle", I finally decided (or, rather, was forced) to go on a "small excursion".

_Ridiculous, _I thought, kicking angrily at the grass as I made my way from the clearing to the waiting forest. _Stupid Uncle and his stupid guilt-tripping. _

Little did I know at the time, but Uncle's stupid guilt-tripping had changed my life irrevocably in just a few short minutes. I don't even know today if he knew what he was doing, sending me into the forest for lychee nuts that morning. What I do know is that I'm still quite grateful to Uncle's guilt-tripping, even to this day.

* * *

**Aang:**

"Well," I said, forcing cheerfulness into my voice, "we might as well get moving!"

Toph scowled at me, and I felt a bit hurt at the severity of her look. "Where to?" she snapped. "We're completely lost!"

Right...As if I could forget that not only was Appa gone, but we were also lost! Instead of arguing with her-though I was considering it-I decided to do what the monks taught me and let my animosity go. After all, what was the point in staying miserable anyway? Appa wouldn't want me to be upset, and he probably wouldn't want me to be angry with Toph, either. Thinking of Appa made me think about my goal, which was to find him, and it reminded me that I was currently lost in a forest with Toph Beifong at the moment, separated from the others. I knew I had to find a way out of here and back to Katara and Sokka.

"The trees around here are pretty dense," I said, thinking out loud. It was a terrible habit, one that would make the monks a bit disappointed in me. After all, it was necessary to be quiet and calm in order to achieve spiritual enlightenment.

But I guess I was just lonely, what with Appa being lost and all...I really needed to stop thinking about him, so for the moment, I pushed my dear friend to the back of my mind and focused on the task at hand, taking a deep breath as I listened to Toph's response.

"No kidding," I heard my companion mutter.

Again, I let the animosity go, taking a deep, calming breath. "If only there was a way to see the rest of the landscape," I mused, rubbing my head.

I could hear Toph scoff. That was the last straw.

"What, Toph? What do you find funny about this situation?" I asked, trying vainly to keep my voice level. After all, the monks always said that yelling never solves anything, especially not disputes. I was pretty sure that I failed.

Toph seemed unfazed as she put her hands on her hips and got quite uncomfortably into my personal space. "You're an airbender, Twinkletoes," she said simply. "Why don't you just use your airbending to climb a tree or something?"

My mouth fell open. Why hadn't I thought of that? I was the Avatar, after all, and I always prided myself on being kinda smart. At that moment, I looked to Toph with a new sense of awe.

"That's a great idea!" I cried, my enthusiasm replenishing instantly.

She groaned, hearing how excited I sounded, and I smiled at her, even though I knew she couldn't see it.

"Be right back!" I called, quickly jumping onto a nearby branch.

"Don't hurry," I heard her mutter. "It's not like we're caught in the middle of woods where no one can find us or anything..."

Once again, I ignored her negativity and continued climbing rapidly up the leafy branches. This would've been so much easier if I'd had my glider, but I'd left it at camp. Oh, well. Climbing trees was a lot of fun, anyway!

The tree was shockingly tall, and I gasped upon realizing that this tree wasn't nearly the tallest one in the dense forest. As I peered out from my perch atop the tree, looking at the massive clusters of leaves surrounding me, I finally realized that it was going to be beyond difficult to figure out where we were.

I looked around once more, even turning around from my position on the top branch, and suddenly, I smiled. To the east, seemingly hundreds of miles away but probably a shorter distance than that, there lay a small, quaint-looking village.

Quickly, I descended the tree. What great news! Finally, I had something good to say to Toph Beifong, and the rest of my mind was silently celebrating at the fact I was one step closer to finding my lost friend.

* * *

**Azula:**

The campsite was quickly flooded with soldiers in green, and unfamiliar fear burned through me at the realization that there was little to no way out of this. Mai and Ty Lee came out of their tents at that moment, and the three of us looked at one another for a brief, fleeting moment. From my cursory glance at her, Ty Lee clearly didn't look good; cuts and scrapes covered her body, and her normally pristine pink outfit was covered with blood, dirt, and other substances to which I could not put a name. Mai appeared in little better shape; dark, heavy purple rings lingered beneath her eyes, standing out dramatically against her pale complexion, and her dark maroon robes were tattered at the sleeves, with claw marks littering the fine fabric. I was certain that _I_ looked fine, though, as a princess of the Land of the Kindling Flame never appears tired or worn, no matter what.

"What should we do?" Mai hissed, trying not to be heard by the nearby soldiers.

The three of us were currently hiding behind a tree. Its soft, mossy coating reminded me of the sleeping bags we'd been occupying just a short time ago, and a brief pang of nostalgia coursed through my heart. Oh, could we ever actually get the right amount of sleep? I angrily shook the thought from my head; such a pathetic notion should never be tolerated by a princess.

Quickly, I tried to come up with a plan, but for once, my mind had become blank, wiped clean by my fear. All my mind could think about was the fact we were doomed. I tried to respond, for Mai's sake, but for once, I was at a loss for words.

"What if we just run?" Ty Lee demanded, desperation ringing through her voice.

I nodded; that sounded like as good of an idea as any. "We're going to need to fight our way through the soldiers, but after that, we should be fairly clear."

My two friends nodded their heads obediently, knowing they had very little choice in the matter when it all came down to it.

"Then we'll fight," I whispered.

With that, I blasted my fire into a nearby tree and ran. I ran more quickly than I ever had before. I could hear the shouts of soldiers behind me, but I just continued running, trusting-no,_ knowing_-that Mai and Ty Lee would be following right behind me.

I could feel the boulders and rocks being thrown at me, the thorny bushes scraping at my armor, but still, I ran, tossing the occasional glance back. During these brief glimpses I got of what was going on behind me, I could see the smoke rising from the brush, but I ran ceaselessly, for what felt to me like an eternity. I could feel the fear coursing through me, but it gave me more speed, even though, by this time, I could tell that I was running alone.

So, I ran through the woods so rapidly that the trees blurred around me, so rapidly that when my ankle got caught in a root, I only heard the snap a split second before I fell.

* * *

**Toph:**

I wasn't sure what was taking Twinkletoes so long to get back. How long did it take to climb a stupid tree? Well, I suppose that I didn't know what it was like, considering I've never climbed one before, not that something like that ever appealed to me. After all, it's pretty hard to climb up high (I hate heights) when the whole climbing experience is completely in the dark. I'm pretty good at feeling my way around and stuff, but it's a whole other story when you've gotta climb a tree in complete darkness, which was why I figured I'd leave that sorta stuff to Twinkletoes.

I feel each gust of wind his airbending made, and I wondered, for a moment, what it would be like to be an airbender. I wouldn't have to deal with being bound to the earth anymore, but then, what if things went completely dark? That sort of thought definitely made me reconsider my previous ones. The darkness kinda freaks me out a little bit, even though it's got its perks-like being able to see things without having the distraction of "color". In fact, I don't even remember what the colors are.

Before I could continue thinking about colors and darkness, I felt a gust of wind blow my hair back. Twinkletoes quickly descended the tree, and I could feel from the vibrations he made that he was excited about something.

"Toph," Aang said breathlessly, "I saw houses in the distance!" Even though I couldn't actually see it, I could practically _feel _his grin.

"Houses, as in a village?" I felt hope building inside me, too. Maybe we'd get back to Sokka and Katara nice and quickly.

"Yeah!" said Twinkletoes excitedly. "A real village! This is so lucky!"

"Yeah," I replied. "Let's just hope that Sugar Queen and Snoozles have the same idea." Inwardly, though, I was ecstatic at my stroke of good luck.

* * *

**Azula:**

_Damn... _I groaned as I slowly tried to lift myself up. My good fortune was truly expiring, it seemed. My ankle was throbbing, aching, and burning in time with my pounding heart. Why did I have to be so damned clumsy, even after I had gone to such lengths to conceal the weakness? My father always told me that my secret lack of coordination would come back to bite me in the end, and, of course, he had been right.

Finally, after much struggle and pain in that accursed ankle, I finally managed to lift myself up. The pounding and throbbing were staggering, but I knew that I wouldn't get anywhere by just lying on the ground.

So, I began the long walk to...Well, that was the problem! I wasn't exactly sure where I was supposed to go, anyway! And how was I supposed to? It was Mai's responsibility to make sure we were properly tracking the Avatar, whom, thanks to those Agni-damned platypus-bears, it seemed we had lost.

"Damn it!" I hissed, partially out of pain but mostly out of absolute frustration.

I was lost. I was completely lost in the Agni-forsaken woods in the middle of the Agni-damned Earth Kingdom! How in the names of the Spirits was I supposed to get out of this situation?

_The same way you always do,_ I thought determinedly. _Just get up and start walking._

With that thought, I began walking again, attempting to ignore my throbbing ankle and praying to the Spirits (if they even existed, a fact I was still looking to discover for certain) that I would make it out of this situation and achieve my true goal: the Avatar's capture and the ultimate victory of this war for the Fire Nation.

* * *

**Sokka:**

My head was throbbing. I wasn't really sure what had happened, but all I felt were thorns digging into my clothing. I had landed in a thorn bush, I realized. My whole body ached from the fall into the sharp, jagged branches, and the thorns seemed to incase me in their arms.

Crap! Why did these things have to happen to me? I mean, come on! I was always the one getting hurt or trampled on by all the crazies in the world! I wanted to scream in anger, but I realized that screaming would do nothing but maybe hurt me worse. _Damn it! _Why did all of the most painful and wacky things always happen to me? The words of the fortuneteller echoed through my pain-dulled mind.

_Your life will be full of pain and suffering, most of it self-inflicted._

_Maybe the old hag was right,_ I thought grudgingly.

Shaking my head to clear it of thoughts that obviously wouldn't help me at the moment, I tried to rise, but I quickly noticed that I was completely ensnared.

"Oh, Spirits-Who-I-Don't-Believe-Are-Listening, _please_ help me," I prayed, even though the rational part of my mind knew that my prayers weren't going anywhere. After all, even if spirits do actually exist (and, having seen the Spirit World myself, I can say that I believe they exist), why would they help me? I've got enough bad karma to take down an angry elephant-hippo.

I needed to find a way out of this predicament, to find my way back to my friends so that we could reach Ba Sing Se sometime soon. I tried to think, but my mind was numb with fear at the idea that I could potentially be trapped in this bush forever, that no one could ever find me for the rest of my life, and that meant that I would die...a virgin. Even more horrifying, it meant there was a possibility that I would go for the rest of my life (however short it may be without the necessities) without consuming any more meat!

Of course, as I thought about such horrific things, my breathing and heartbeat quickened, and my mind began to panic even more. I just had to get out of here!

"HELP!" I shrieked in a moment of weakness. "Someone help meeeee!"

I didn't care how girly and pathetic it sounded, and I certainly didn't care about the rational part of my brain which was now laughing at my stupidity. There was no answer to my screams, of course, but I kept right on wailing anyway.

What else could I do?

* * *

**Zuko: **

It turned out that the woods were even creepier when one was actually within the confines of the trees and brush than when gazing from the outside. It was quiet, tense, but at the same time, I could hear the scuttling noises of animals that I knew weren't too far from where I was. It was extremely unsettling, knowing that many of those rustling creatures were none too pleasant.

Moreover, one cannot truly appreciate from the outside just how similar all of the moss-covered trees really look. _Great. Just great._ The last thing I needed on top of my shattered honor and dashed hopes of capturing the Avatar was to get lost in some unfamiliar Earth Kingdom forest.

I flinched as I suddenly heard the loud noise of a bird of some sort taking flight from a nearby bush. It seemed that every sound here was magnified, even the slightest shift in the leaves almost deafeningly loud in comparison to the pulsating silence surrounding me. I felt somewhat solitary inside the dark trees, yet the rational part of my mind knew that as long as I was in this forest, I would never truly be alone. I would always be watched, always followed by the animals around me. I could only hope that the only things surrounding me would be animals and nothing else.

With a shudder at the thought of other people possibly jumping from the trees and attacking me, I began walking, looking for those _stupid_ lychee nuts because, apparently, Uncle just_ had_ to have some with his _stupid_ tack.

* * *

**Katara:**

How could this have happened? How could they all have just disappeared like that? Then, the memory of last night came back to me. Toph and Aang yelling at each other, fighting yet again, probably over something stupid, though maybe over Appa, even though Aang never really fought with anyone. Sokka waking up earlier this morning and complaining about meat. Sokka must have gone in search of food, then, and he would be back soon. And Toph and Aang, at least, were together.

Before my thoughts could continue, however, I heard a movement within the , I opened my pouch of bending water, and my body shifted into a stance.

"Who's there?" I asked, and I was vaguely aware that my voice was shaking.

I was alone. Completely alone. And I was scared. Whoever was trying to sneak up on me was going to get it. The branches moved again on a tree to my left, and I turned toward the source of the sound. Before whoever it was could come any closer, I sent a whip of water at the tree. That would flush 'em out!

The water hit the tree with a loud splash, sending the former occupant flying to the ground. With a groan, I relaxed from my stance. It was just Momo, who chattered angrily at me before finally deciding to take a perch on a different tree.

"Sorry!" I called to him.

I sighed. Something about being here, being alone for the first time since I left home, was making me uneasy, and I had a feeling that despite the fact I felt lonely, I wasn't really alone here. Maybe that's what was so unsettling.

"Well, Katara," I told myself, "you might as well clean up the campsite."  
I wasn't really sure why I was talking to myself, but it did make me feel a bit less alone. Great! Five minutes alone, and I was already going crazy. In order to prevent further insanity, I started picking up after my very messy brother, who had courteously left me his tent to clean up, Aang, who had left his glider on the ground (in a mud puddle, which meant I had to clean it for him. Again.), and Toph, who had left her second pair of clothes in front of my tent last night for me to wash.

"Since when did I become everyone's maid?" I grumbled as I cleaned.

* * *

**Zuko:**

I was starting to get used to the rhythms of the forest, the scuttling noises of little rodents in the trees or underbrush, birds chirping and taking flight, and the subtle sounds of the wind blowing the leaves. It was kind of comforting, knowing the nature and source of each sound and the fact I was alone.

Before I could ponder my solitary nature, I noticed a familiar-looking patch of trees. Lyche-nuts! Those were what Uncle was looking for. I picked up my pace, jogging toward my way out of this Spirits-forsaken forest.

I picked as many as I could carry, stuffing some of the nuts into the pouch that Uncle had given me. Allowing myself a small smile, I began to leave the area and tread back the way I had come, when I heard something. It seemed to be a voice, coming from some nearby trees. She (for I could tell that the voice was female) sounded both annoyed and distressed. I wondered, idly, if I was simply imagining the voice due to my loneliness.

Then, all of a sudden, I heard a sharp splash, the sound of water hitting the bark of a tree. And that was something that would be impossible, unless the source of the sound was that same girl. That meant that the girl was a waterbender, and I would be willing to bet my honor (or lack thereof) that it was Katara, that Water Tribe peasant who traveled with the Avatar. After all, how many waterbenders were there in the Earth Kingdom?

My mind was suddenly more conflicted than it usually was. I was supposed to be on a mission for my uncle: find the lychee-nuts and return to him so that he could make tack out of them. But suddenly, lychee-nuts and Uncle's stupid tack didn't seem all that important anymore. My crown, my birthright, Father's love, and my honor...all of those things could come from the Avatar's capture.

Without a second thought, I burst through the trees.

* * *

**Azula:**

Unsurprisingly, my trek through the woods led me in one big circle. Of course, I should have expected this, given my recent run of Agni-awful luck. Moreover, I openly admit that my sense of direction leaves much to be desired. After all, I can't be good at everything, right?

Well, reading a map was one thing that I wished I had bothered learning. Not that I had a map, of course, for my map had been soaked-as were all of my belongings-a few days earlier, during which time Mai, Ty Lee, and I were escaping that damned pack of platypus-bears and crossed a river. Needless to say, I was lost.

Sighing, I looked around once more, trying to find a landmark, anything that would point me in the direction of civilization. The only things I found were platypus-bear footprints and some Earth Kingdom soldier footprints. For a while, I tried to follow the trail, but I quickly realized two things. One, they split off in seemingly a thousand different directions, and I didn't feel quite like trying them all in order to find the correct trail. Two, why in Agni's name would I want to follow a trail made by Earth Kingdom soldiers or platypus-bears?

I growled in frustration, compelled to shoot a blast of fire at the trees and burn this entire forest down, to see these accursed trees and wretched bushes crumble to the ground and into a pile of ash! Then, I shook those useless thoughts from my head. Burning down the forest held no strategic advantage for me. After all, the trees were both my prison and my _cover_, graciously hiding me from savage Earth Kingdom soldiers and monstrous platypus-bears.

I smiled to myself at the notion of protective trees, but it wasn't a real smile. I hadn't had one of those in an immeasurable amount of time.

Suddenly, I was forced out of my reverie by a shout of some sort. I couldn't really make out the voice; it sounded too far away for that, but I could tell that whomever had cried out was in some serious trouble.

Now, I'm not the kind of person who would actually _help_ another (and it makes me disgusted to even consider doing something that will not ultimately benefit myself), but for some reason, my body started moving toward the source of the sound without permission. My legs were suddenly surging forward, rushing as if I actually cared about whomever-it-was. The throbbing in my ankle actually seemed to be alleviated at the thought of this stranger being harmed in any way (for he did, indeed, sound as though he was going to be harmed if someone didn't help him).

I continued running toward the voice, and it steadily grew closer. I just hoped that whomever it was wasn't an Earth Kingdom soldier...

**To Be Continued...**

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**A/N: Great! Yet another chapter during which nothing remotely interesting happens. I promise the plot will pick up soon...**

Okay, don't kill me, few people who are still reading this story! There is absolutely no excuse for how late this chapter is, but, of course, I'm going to make one! I'm already working on the next chapter, but with a six-month time of plain-old writer's block and lack of inspiration, I'm afraid this story is going to suffer in quality for awhile. But I'm in it for the long haul. I think this story is going to be at least fifty chapters of about 4K length. At least, that's what I've outlined. I'm going into this fic mostly cold, though, because I just don't have the time right now to outline all of this. This is the first time I've gotten to actually sit down and write for days. Sorry for the wait, but I hope this chapter made up for it...Anyway, review please! I need some feedback (and help!) in this OOC monster of a fic. **ALSO, SHOULD I JUST SCRAP THIS? Please REVIEW with a least that information!**

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**And, as if this wasn't long enough...Review response time!**

****This chapter, I had one anonymous reviewer: **grievous27**

_Thank you so much for reviewing my story! I hope you continue reading it and that you enjoy where it's really gonna go. After all, I think of this story as quite an experimental one; you never know where it's gonna stop or when the next twist is coming! Be prepared! :)_

_Anyway, thanks! _


	4. Chapter 3: The Fiery Escape

**Summary:** Luck is a funny thing; you never know when it's going to run out. Another weird thing about luck is that you never know whether it's good or bad until it's all said and done, and you look back and realize, "Hey, that wasn't so bad!" Set during Book 2, eventual AU.

**Main Pairings:** Sokkla, Zutara, and Taang

**Word Count: **4,259

**WARNINGS: **AU, OOC (I prefer character-growth, but I suppose it depends on how you look at it), Crack pairings, Zutara (a Kataang friend of mine told me to write that), references to homosexuality and incest.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender (NOTICE THE BOLD FONT!)**

* * *

**_Previously in _****The Gilded Throne...**

**Azula:**

_My legs were suddenly surging forward, rushing as if I actually cared about whomever-it-was. The throbbing in my ankle actually seemed to be alleviated at the thought of this stranger being harmed in any way (for he did, indeed, sound as though he was going to be harmed if someone didn't help him)._

_I continued running toward the voice, and it steadily grew closer. I just hoped that whomever it was wasn't an Earth Kingdom soldier..._

* * *

**The Gilded Throne**

**Chapter 3: The Fiery Escape**

* * *

**Katara:**

It seemed that lately, things hadn't exactly been going my way. First, Appa got kidnapped-or bison-napped, I guess. Then, Aang became shockingly quiet, too quiet, and a quiet, somber Aang was something I definitely wasn't used to. And now, my friends had all disappeared overnight? It sounded like the perfect nightmare to me.

I thought about my situation as I cleaned up camp. Despite say to Sokka many times that I wasn't anyone's maid, I couldn't honestly say that I didn't like cleaning things. Organizing, tidying, it helped me to organize my own thoughts, to clear my head. Normally, I would want to practice my waterbending, but with everyone else gone, I couldn't guarantee that I would have more water to actually drink. If I was going to go wait at the campsite for my friends to come back, which was definitely a smart thing to do for now, I would definitely need to replenish my water supply. I added _Find a stream _to my mental to-do list.

As I bent over to pick up one of Sokka's dirty socks, wincing at the terrible smell, I heard a whooshing sound and felt a massive amount of heat right above my head. It was firebending! It just had to be. Instantly, I threw Sokka's filthy sock back on the ground and whirled around in a bending stance.

I gasped as I came face to face with none other than Prince Zuko, but I quickly recovered from my shock and managed to dodge the flame he threw at me. Pulling water from a nearby puddle and launching the attack at the scarred prince, I was suddenly very grateful that it had rained a few days ago. As Zuko easily deflected my attack, I cursed the fact it was also high noon on a perfectly cloudless day.

Quickly, I tried to grab my waterskin, only to realize that I had used up all of the water inside minutes earlier.

"_Shit!" _I cursed under my breath as Zuko advanced menacingly.

Full of desperation and fueled by adrenaline, I charged the firebender with all my strength. He wasn't expecting the attack, and I managed to tackle him to the ground. My victory only lasted for a minute, though, and I soon found myself in the opposite position, his stronger body pinning me down.

"Funny seeing you here," said Zuko with a smirk. Then, his expression became angry. "Now tell me where the Avatar is!"

Instantly, I became furious with him as I panted for breath from the way his legs were squeezing my torso. "You think I would tell _you, _you selfish, disgusting, spoiled prince?" I retorted, struggling underneath his grip. "Now let go of me!"

"If you tell me where he is, I'll let you go," said the Fire Prince, glaring at me as if I was in his way...though I guess I kind of was.

"No!" I shouted. "Let me go!"

"I don't think you're in a position to refuse," said Zuko, taking my wrists in one hand to free up his other arm.

I kept my mouth defiantly shut, and this seemed to make him angrier, much to my satisfaction.

"If you don't tell me, then I guess I'll just have to burn down your campsite to look for him," he threatened, summoning a flame to his hand.

A wave of fear coursed through me. How would the others find me if the campsite was burned to the ground? That thought rang through my mind, and I finally caved in. "He's not here!" I blurted out.

"What?" growled Zuko, still not budging from on top of me.

I wanted to tell him that his stupid legs were hurting me, but I could barely find the air to speak; his tackling me had knocked it right out of my lungs. Instead, I told him, "I'm the only one here; Aang and the others all left before I woke up, and they haven't come back yet. I don't know where they are."

Saying it out loud seemed to have more of an impact on my mind, and I think that was when I fully took it in: they were _gone. _They were really gone.

* * *

**Sokka:**

I wasn't sure how long I had spent, being stuck in those stupid thorns. The sheer hunger I felt, gnawing away at my empty stomach, made me want to cry. The thought of never getting any meat again-EVER-made me try even harder to escape. I tried to squirm and wriggle my way from the tangled mess, but every movement I made just sent more sharp thorns into my skin, causing me to cry out in pain, and the pain was rapidly turning into outright panic.

Spirits! If I could just find a way out of this, I would give up _anything_! Yes, I've been through an experience like this before, and no, I didn't _actually_ give up my two trademark traits, but this time was different! This time, I would give them up! I would be _Sokka, the Gentle, Meaty-Critter-Loving Nice Guy. _I just needed to get out of here!

I let loose another shout, a vain plea for help. My voice echoed through the forest, and it made me feel even more desperate. No one could hear me; I knew that, because the rational part of my mind surely understood that there was no one in the forest to help me. Besides, even if there was someone around, why would _they_ help _me?_ They probably thought I was trying to lure them into some kind of trap or something...At least, that's what I would-

Suddenly, my thoughts were cut off as I heard a movement coming through the trees. Oh, how I hoped it wasn't some kind of monster coming to get me. Because that kind of thing _would _happen to me.

"Over here! Someone HEEELLLPP!" I cried again, thinking that maybe they would hear me and get me out of these bushes before I starved to death.

The movement came closer, becoming louder as each second passed. I waited, still shouting, until I realized something that caused me to freeze in my movements. What if the person coming to rescue me as actually coming to _hurt_ me? What if it wasn't even a _person_ coming? With mounting terror, I imagined a massive, terrifying horde of platypus-bears and a variety of other horrific monsters coming to attack me while I was stuck in this thorn bush.

My heart pounding, I stayed stalk still, trying not to breathe too loudly for fear of alerting what ever beasts could possibly be hiding around me, waiting to kill me and gobble me up.

But then, I probably wouldn't provide that big of a meal, considering I'm kinda...skinny. Toph likes to use a different word to describe me:_ wimpy_. But I'm _not _WIMPY! I'm just a little...scrawny, maybe? I mean, it's not my fault I'm not some kind of spectacular bender like everybody else!

With those thoughts running through my head, I was a little distracted, so when I heard a rushed whisper coming from somewhere behind me and to my right, I started. The thorns dug further into my tender (bare) arms, and I barely restrained my yelps of both surprise and pain. A pale hand moved swiftly to cover my mouth.

"Whomever you are," the voice, obviously female, hissed, "you'd best stay still and quiet. We're surrounded, and your shouts will reveal our location to the assailants." Her voice was chillingly soft, honeyed and sickly sweet, and it sent a shiver down my spine. I wasn't sure whether it was the good kind or the bad kind, but I really didn't have that much time to think of things like that anyway.

I wanted to ask her, _Surrounded by whom?,_ but this new intruder seemed to have quite stifling hands. Since she had come at me from behind, I had no idea who she actually was. Her warm breath tickled my neck, so I could tell that she was close to me. But the things that really got my attention were the pallor of the skin of her hand and the sharpness of her nails against my cheek.

"Now, if you stay still, I can get you out of these vines," the mysterious girl whispered.

Without waiting for my affirmative nod (or question of how a girl who I assumed was unarmed could do such a thing), the girl's other hand made itself known. Swiftly, the outstretched fingers opened, and the unthinkable happened. A flame, as blue as a robin-swallow's egg and as hot as the sun, appeared in her hand, and that was when I realized just who this girl was: Princess Azula.

Yup, I was more than screwed; I was _completely_ screwed.

* * *

**Aang:**

"How much further, Twinkletoes?" Toph complained for the millionth time that hour.

I sighed in barely-restrained frustration. "Listen, Toph, the monks always said-"

"I know!" She threw up her hands angrily, blowing her bangs from her face with a huff. "_Patience makes the wait seem shorter and the reward all the more special._ That's the twelfth time you've said it today!"

That was it! I was through with her sass! I had tried absolutely everything to talk to Toph, to make sure we got back to the others in one piece or even as really good friends, but this? _This_ had been going on for over two hours! Every _ten minutes_, Toph would whine and ask how much further till we got to the village, and _every ten minutes_, I would say the same thing about patience (or something like it), and every ten minutes, Toph would just ask again and again and again! But after two hours, I had had enough. This time was the last straw!

"That's the twelfth time you've asked it today!" I finally exploded, gusts of wind whipping around me because of my anger. "If you _really_ want to know how much further, I have an answer for you: I DON'T KNOW! We have been walking for almost two hours since we stopped for lunch, and don't know how much longer we'll have to go after that, Toph. We're headed in the right direction, okay? But I don't know how much further! And-"

Toph tried to cut me off, but I was too angry to let her just keep on back-talking me after I was trying my best to get to the village I had seen-not an easy task, given the crazy number of similar-looking trees in the general area. Every so often, I would climb another tree and look for that village, and it seemed like that mass of green buildings just wouldn't get closer, like it was permanently far away. It was so frustrating that I just wanted to shout and whine, even though the monks would be really upset if I did that. I just couldn't help it!

"Do you think this is easy for me?!" I demanded, in a rage. "Being stuck in the forest?! Alone! Without Appa or any of my friends!" Instantly, I recognized my error, but I had already said it, and it was too late to take it back. My anger dissipated as quickly as clouds on a sunny day, and remorse replaced the anger. "Toph-" I tried.

I saw Toph's blind eyes widen and then become dull with hurt. They shone with anger, however, as she spoke. "Save it, Twinkletoes. I don't wanna hear it," she said, cutting me off as she schooled her expression into a bored one. "I'm just sorry that you don't have any of your _friends _with you. I hope we can keep going so that you can get back to them _really_ soon." Without waiting for my stammered response, she stomped ahead of me, still following the mossy path.

I hung my head and followed her at a slower pace, ashamed that my temper had once again gotten the best of me. So much for befriending Toph. Now, I would be lucky if she ever talked to me again. But at this point, there wasn't much I could do about that. So, I did what I had been doing for these past three months since waking up in the South Pole: I kept on walking, kept on moving forward, and when I passed her, I didn't look back at Toph to see the sadness in her sightless eyes.

* * *

**Toph: **

I still hadn't spoken to Twinkletoes since he'd said I wasn't his friend. I wasn't hurt by what he said-at least, that's what I was trying to tell myself. Deep down, maybe his rejection hurt _a little bit_, but I think that was probably because he was the first person I had wanted to be friends with.

Sugar Queen was kind of obnoxious, in that really _Goody-Two-Shoes_ kind of way, and Sokka, or Snoozles, as I often thought of him...Well, I would be lying if I said I didn't have a bit of a...crush on him. But then, he was a lot older than me, so he probably wasn't interested. I didn't know, but what I _did _know was that Twinkletoes was the only one I felt like I could really be friends with. But I guess he didn't feel that way.

We'd been walking for about two or three hours since lunch, which had consisted of some sour yet sweet berries that Twinkletoes found. Honestly, I would have rather not eaten, since anyone with a brain could tell you that berries don't fill you up. At all. In fact, I was pretty sure that the berries were making me hungrier than I had been before we stopped. All I really wanted to sink my teeth into was a nice bowl of rice and some possum-chicken dumplings. My stomach rumbled at the thought.

Shaking those thoughts from my head, I instead focused on the forest floor. Since there was a considerable number of layers of dead leaves and Spirits-know-what-else, it was difficult for me to see. Things were murkier, vibrations weakened or even deadened by the easily shifting forest floor, kind of like how it was in that stupid desert, but here, I could vaguely feel earth beneath me. It gave me a little bit of comfort to know that I could bend in a pinch, but I would have to be in a pretty tight spot to be able to.

At least navigating here was a bit easier than it had been in the desert. The trees and animals gave off vibrations that I could feel clearly, so I could feel my way around those. It was what was _beneath_ the forest floor, like holes or maybe dead thorn bushes, that really made me nervous.

* * *

**Zuko:**

I couldn't believe what I had heard for a moment. The waterbender beneath me had turned out to be Katara. I could tell from those eyes of hers, those deep blue eyes that showed all of her hope-and obvious anger at seeing me. But what she had said...that the Avatar was gone...It didn't make any sense at all.

"What do you mean, gone?" I demanded, gripping her wrists harder.

She let loose a yelp of pain, and I suddenly realized that I was hurting her. Quickly, I rose from the ground and offered my hand. The Water Tribe girl refused it and got up on her own, rubbing her wrists and shooting me a baleful glare.

"I don't need anyone's help, especially not _yours_," she said spitefully. "And Aang isn't here. I don't know where he is. So that means that _you _don't need to be here either!"

I was taken aback by the venom in her voice. Awkwardly, I rubbed the back of my neck. "Listen, I uh...I'm...I'm sorry if I hurt you," I finally got out. "Sometimes, I don't know my own strength, and uh...I don't spend that much time around people who aren't my uncle, so I guess I-" I blinked as I realized how stupid I must have sounded.

"It's fine," the waterbender said guardedly. As she turned to look back at me, something on her upper arm caught my attention, and I gasped, reaching out for her arm.

"Katara, you're burned," I said, dread instantly filling me as I lightly ran my finger across it. _I had burned her._

She flinched at what I assumed was the pain of my hand touching her. We stayed like that for a moment, though, and I carefully moved the fabric away from the skin, knowing from personal experience how badly it would hurt if the clothing was fused in the burn. Then, the waterbender looked up at me suddenly as if a thought had occurred to her.

"How do you know my name?" she asked angrily, snatching her arm away from me.

I shrugged. "Well, I've kind of been chasing the Avatar around the world. I've heard your name said before." I paused awkwardly. "About your burn, you really should wrap it up, or it'll scar."

"What? Like yours?" she retorted angrily, clearly trying to get a rise out of me.

I started at the mention of my scar but didn't get mad. After all, what was the use? She didn't know how it had happened. Instead, I looked away, facing my good cheek to her so she wouldn't have to look at it.

"I know. It's disgusting," I muttered, for some reason even more ashamed of my scar than ever.

I wasn't sure why I was even standing here anymore. After all, this girl had said that the Avatar wasn't here. Shouldn't I just be going back to Uncle and forgetting this ever happened? But there was something about this waterbending girl that compelled me. I wasn't sure what.

Finally, the waterbender spoke and looked at the ground, as if embarrassed. "I'm a healer, so all I need is some water, and I should be okay to heal myself, only I kind of used up all my water fighting against you." She cast me a slightly angry glare as she looked up at me.

I sighed. "I don't have any water, either," I admitted honestly. "I was just looking for some food for my uncle, and he told me he wanted lychee-nuts, so I came here, and then I heard you, so I kind of..." I trailed off awkwardly.

"Oh," she said softly. "Well, I was going to look for a stream." She met my eyes, her blue ones sparkling with something I couldn't identify. "Would you like to come with me? There's safety in numbers."

I nodded my head. "Sure. Sounds good," I said, shrugging.

After all, I supposed that Uncle could always use some water, too.

* * *

**Sokka:**

Azula was helping me out of the bushes. Azula. The Fire Princess and the scariest person I had ever seen in my entire life was helping me. This had to be some sort of dream. Maybe Toph had snuck some cactus juice into my food as a joke. Because that _sounds_ like some sort of sick joke Toph would play on me.

Then, it suddenly occurred to me that since she had approached me from behind, she may not know who I am. I took a bit of solace in the fat that _at least_ she was getting me out of the bushes so that I could fight back as she tried to kill me later.

I heard growls in the distance, coming closer, and I knew that it wasn't my growling stomach this time. There was a sense of urgency with which the firebender burnt away my thorny prison. As she did, I realized that she would probably try to kill me on sight, because that's just how ruthless firebenders are! A disguise was what I needed, something to disguise my face...or maybe my clothing, although it had been significantly dirtied and ripped from my time in the thorn bush.

Before I could do anything to hide who I was, the Fire Nation princess lifted me up, as though I were as light as a leaf. Seriously, what was up with this girl?

As I picked up my belongings from the ground, her hand still covering my mouth, she murmured, "If I remove my hand from your face, can you promise me that you won't scream?"

I nodded vigorously, and she quickly let go of me. I took a few relieved breaths through my mouth and then turned to her slowly, suddenly nervous to look at her, and I was shocked to find that she was an absolute mess. Her hair had half fallen from its topknot, and her skin was covered in cuts, bruises, and dirt. Her armor was filthy and tattered, and she was leaning heavily on one ankle, the other one held slightly away from her. It looked painfully swollen. Even from where I was standing, I could tell that the ankle was either badly sprained or outright broken.

The growls came again, closer this time, so I focused away from her appearance and looked to the woods to our left. "What is chasing us?" I asked, my body still turned.

"Platypus-bears," said the princess grimly. "A whole horde of them, though I suppose that's better than the Earth Kingdom soldiers."

I decided not to ask, afraid that doing so would give my identity away. "So, what do we do?" I asked, still keeping my voice down.

The bushes around us began to move, and the ground started to shake slightly. The growls had elevated into outright roars.

"We RUN!" cried the firebender, grabbing my hand.

I tried to ignore the strength of her grip and focused again on the fact that we were running from platypus-bears. I could hear them directly behind me, and I felt the firebender's hand begin to shake.

"How many are there?" I panted as we continued running.

"Maybe ten, maybe twenty." Too many to fight, but it was worth a try, so I decided to say so.

"Why don't we fight them?" I asked the Fire Princess.

I saw her stop running just as we reached a grassy clearing. The look in her eyes told me that she had been longing for someone to say that. She slipped into a firebending stance easily, even though I could tell she was exhausted.

Instead of reaching for my signature boomerang, I grabbed a more generic spear. I could see her out of the corner of my eye, a smirk on her face as the bears advanced, bursting through the bushes and into the clearing we'd found. Quickly, she let loose a series of bursts of fire. Bears on the left and right appeared quite distressed, as they clearly weren't expecting their would-be snacks to be able to launch fireballs, so they fled the scene instantly. I was suddenly very grateful for Azula's blue firebending.

A platypus-bear advanced on me, and instead of running, I charged at it with my spear. It was a young one, probably just a bit older than a cub, so it ran away before I reached it, letting loose a whine. I felt really good about that, and I was about to charge back into the fray, when I saw that the fight was already over.

Azula had already subdued most of the bears, and they were all staring at her, mystified by her firebending as she practically put on a bending show for them. Finally, she shot a stream of fire into the air and let it rain down, setting the grass around her ablaze, and the remaining platypus-bears decided that they had had enough. Azula stood in the ring of flaming grass, watching them leave, the fire shadowing her face and giving her a sinister look-even more sinister than she already was, that is. Then, the fire that had seemed so substantial as it burned the grass around it suddenly vanished.

"Wow," was all I could say.

She nodded, seemingly proud as she watched the trees, even though she was panting pretty heavily. I was pretty sure that such intense firebending would make anyone exhausted, especially after running so far and with a mostly broken ankle.

"Well, I think we've lost them," I said happily. "Your bending was pretty uh..." I floundered for the right word.

"Yes, it was, wasn't it?" she asked slowly. Then, suddenly, she whirled around to face me.

As she gazed at me, her eyes widened and then narrowed, and a frown stretched her lips. "I recognize you," she said slowly. And then, her expression victorious and intimidating and her gold eyes sharp, Princess Azula declared, "Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe."

_Well, shit_.

**To Be Continued...**

* * *

**A/N: **Okay, don't kill me! I am already halfway through writing the next chapter, and things are about to progress quite quickly. Most of the way that I write relies on slow build and then a complete avalanche.

It's a bit difficult to understand, even for me, but this piece _will_ have a plot. I'm hoping to have Chapter 4 up in less than a week, but I can't guarantee anything. Anyway, I really could use some feedback, and I know that the Sokkla fandom is small, but I can promise that this fanfic is worth your time. It just takes a bit of time to build up to what it will be.

Some scenes have already been adapted from moments in the show, but do know that this will be a bit of a change from the show in that this story still possesses the zany humor and deep moments, but I find that what I've outlined for Gilded Throne seems to be quite a bit more mature. I hope that is to all of your likings. If you want to talk about it, please don't hesitate to shoot me a PM.

Also, it's funny that, even though this entire fanfic centers around Azula, this particular chapter doesn't really have that much Azula in it at all. Don't worry; we'll catch up with her later!

* * *

**Review Responses to Anonymous Reviewers:**

**To John: **Thank you for deciding to review my story! I'm really flattered that you at least implied that it was a good story! I hope you keep on reading and maybe reviewing, because I would love to hear from you!

**To Kate :): **Wow! Thanks so much for reviewing my story-and all three chapters, too! I hope you like this one! I do agree that maybe Azula was a bit out of character in wanting to help someone, but I guess that's okay, considering I did have her explain that not even she knows why she's running. I'm really glad that you decided to review, because before you reviewed, I was strongly considering scrapping this fic.

**To Henri: **Wow! You read all three chapters, and you had such thoughtful things to say about each one. On the first-person narrative: yes, I think I may continue it but only in little spurts, like when we absolutely need to hear a character's thoughts. On Azula's rational personality: In my book, this is just how she thinks, and we just don't get to see it. You'll be able to get inside that head of hers in later chapters, and let me tell you something: it's really scary in there!

Anyway, thank you so much for reviewing! You rule! :)

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**And thanks again to anyone who fave'd, followed, or reviewed this story, and, of course, you anonymous readers, too! I really appreciate your support!**


	5. Chapter 4: The Agreements

**Summary:** Luck is a funny thing; you never know when it's going to run out. Another weird thing about luck is that you never know whether it's good or bad until it's all said and done, and you look back and realize, "Hey, that wasn't so bad!" Set during Book 2, eventual AU.

**Main Pairings:** Sokkla, Zutara, and Taang

**Word Count: **6,268

**WARNINGS: **AU, OOC (I prefer character-growth, but I suppose it depends on how you look at it), Crack pairings, Zutara (a Kataang friend of mine told me to write that), possible references to homosexuality and incest.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender (NOTICE THE BOLD FONT!)**

* * *

**_Previously in _****The Gilded Throne...**

**Sokka:**

_As she gazed at me, her eyes widened and then narrowed. "I recognize you," she said slowly. And then, her expression victorious and intimidating and her gold eyes sharp, Princess Azula declared, "Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe."_

Well, shit_. _

* * *

**The Gilded Throne**

**Chapter 4: The Agreements**

* * *

**Azula:**

I slammed my new captive against a nearby tree without warning, my hand tightly gripping his throat and holding him to the gnarled bark. Leaning in closely to him, I could see the refreshing glint of fear in his shockingly blue eyes.

"Well, now that the pleasantries of introducing ourselves are over, _where is the Avatar?_" I hissed the last few words, a deadly smirk firmly on my face despite my exhaustion and that throbbing pain it seemed I couldn't escape.

"I-I don't know!" the peasant choked, those blue, blue eyes of his widening fearfully.

Grudgingly, my hand loosened slightly but still held him firmly in place so as to allow enough air to travel to his lungs and prevent the Water Tribe barbarian from suffocating to death.

_After all,_ I reminded myself, _I don't want to kill him...not _yet,_ anyway._

"I got separated from the rest of the group a few hours ago," he panted.

My eyes narrowed, scanning his appropriately fearful expression for any sign of trickery. Not finding any, I released my grip on his neck, causing the Water Tribe peasant to fall to the ground with a thud and an _oof, _the lovely sound of air being forced from his lungs.

I growled in frustration. Of _course _he didn't know! Peasants were always useless.

He held my gaze, and I looked back at the pathetic barbarian and watched coldly as he caught his breath. Continually, he cast baleful glares in my direction. I just sneered at him in response, knowing it would make him irritated.

"What in La's name is wrong with you?" he demanded sharply, rising from the ground. He was only a few inches taller than me, but the expression he wore on his visage was so feral that I felt something almost akin to trepidation. "You don't just go around slamming people against trees!" the peasant continued. His voice was shrill and indignant and cracked pathetically on several words, which allowed me to infer that he could not be that much older than fifteen or sixteen.

I will admit that I was slightly taken aback by his vehement protests, but my features were schooled intentionally into a bored expression. Woe be unto those who witness any form of surprise or weakness on the countenance of the Great Princess Azula!

"Stupid peasant," I hissed to myself, looking back at the barbarian, who was in the process of taking almost comically deep breaths at the moment. Addressing him, I declared, "Well, that means that you're completely useless to me."

At my words, he squeaked in what I hoped was fear but was most likely an attempt to respond to my statement.

My eyes raked over his lean form for a moment as I pondered my predicament, gazing at him but not really seeing him.

_He must be of some advantage to the Avatar, _I mused. _Otherwise, why would the Avatar keep such a useless fighter in his group, as he would only be a liability during major confrontations? Therefore, he's probably the group's tactician. So, I obviously can't imprison him, or he could possibly gain more information about my weaknesses and then escape, giving the Avatar a significant advantage in taking me down. And I most certainly cannot allow him to simply leave, as, on the off chance he manages to return to the Avatar and his friends, his leaving adds too many possibilities to the equation, and too many possibilities would make things unpredictable and, worse, out of my control._

_So, those weren't options..._

Which meant that the only true fate for this disgusting savage was death. It was still so early in the morning, and I already felt drained from both the long run away from and subsequent fight against the mob of platypus-bears _and_ dealing with his pathetic peasantry. Using up the remainder of my now-scarce supply of energy on killing such a base person seemed to be at odds with my usually cautious, tactical personality; I would never waste all of my energy on killing someone, as that would leave me in a very vulnerable position.

"Look, you don't need to kill me," said the peasant, breaking the silence.

I gazed at him, as though surveying a new specimen for the first time. How did he know what I was thinking? I had kept a blank expression trained on my face the entire time I was entertaining the idea of killing the tribal peasant.

"If you're wondering how I know what you were thinking, it's because I get it; I'm useful to Aang, and you want to get rid of another one of his assets," he said, as calmly as if he were discussing the weather.

I gave him no verbal response. Instead, I made eye contact with the barbarian (despite my regal upbringing), hoping to intimidate him. Rather than my desired effect, his gaze met mine squarely, his eyes knowing and calm, almost predatory.

"But let me ask you something. Do you have any food? Any water? Any way out of these woods?" He let the questions hang in the air, cloudy and murky, and it was then that I realized that this savage may be of higher intellectual potential than I had anticipated.

Still, I knew from experience that it was better to respond to his words than to ignore him, and I also realized that, in this particular instance, it would probably be beneficial to me to be honest about my lack of resources.

"No, I do not," I responded coolly.

"Well, I grew up learning how to navigate the most inhospitable place in the world, how to hunt, and how to survive there." He paused. "So if you decide to kill me, you're going to be without food, water, and any means of navigation." The Water Tribe barbarian's voice almost taunted me by this point.

"I am certain that I can find my way out of this forest on my own," I lied sharply, feeling almost indignant that he had the temerity to question my admittedly abysmal sense of direction.

The peasant boy smiled, a smug expression that told me that he had some sort of trick up his sleeve. "If that was the case, you probably would've shot me full of lightning already." That self-assured tone of voice was both familiar and irritating. How dare that filthy rube use such a rude tone of voice with me?!

"Who said I was going to use _lightning_?" I retorted, folding my arms with a deadly smirk on my face.

He ignored my response and continued as if I hadn't spoken, which sent yet another wave of acrid indignation through me. "Look, you've caught me in a generous mood today, so how about this: you let me go, and I'll make sure you get out of here safely."

I scoffed. "What? Do you know the spirit guardian of this forest?" I asked sarcastically. Then again, such a thing was entirely possible when in the presence of a friend of the Avatar's.

His eyes widened slightly for some reason, but he quickly collected himself. "I don't need to," he responded with a shrug that I could tell was forced. "So, what'll it be? Will you kill me and then be forced to find a way out of here by yourself, not to mention fight off all the scary platypus-bears that seem to be following your every move? Or will you let me live so that we can both get out of this forest in more or less one piece?" he asked. I could tell that despite his cool facade, he was a bit irritated and quite a bit more nervous at this moment.

"And why would _you _want to help _me _get out of this forest?" I asked him, suddenly feeling suspicious of his motives.

"Because there's safety in numbers," the peasant replied, "and you're a good fighter, so it would be quite helpful to have you on my side for a change."

I deliberated for a moment. On the one hand, a part of me was fairly certain that I would be able to handle this situation on my own, that I would easily be able to find a way out of the forest, fight those stupid bears, and find Mai and Ty Lee by myself. But another part of me had its doubts. The forest was huge and had already successfully confounded me once - - who was to say it wouldn't happen a second or even a third time?

And, with that thought in mind, who was to say that I would _ever _find my way back to Mai and Ty Lee and out of the wilderness? Moreover, the interim between me being back out of the forest and me finding my way could be a massive amount of time. How would I eat? I had no conception of which berries were palatable or which nuts and mushrooms were easy to find here. I had no idea where to locate usable drinking water or how to track an animal if I was absolutely forced to consume such filthy and unrefined meat. Despite my far superior intelligence and skills, I realized that he could be quite useful to me. No, I realized that I actually _needed_ his help, as disgusted as it made me feel to admit it.

"Fine," I said after a long pause. "But this is only a temporary truce, and it can and will be terminated by either party at any point, at which time we will return to being enemies. Do you understand?"

He nodded. Then, he surprised me by extending his hand. "We shake on it," said the peasant.

I frowned but offered my hand, even though the very notion of _touching _such a filthy savage nauseated me. Seemingly oblivious to (or perhaps just ignoring) my disgust, the barbarian took my outstretched hand and held my forearm for a moment. For some reason, I felt a bizarre amount of warmth wash over my body at the feeling of his hand touching me. Rapidly, as though he had burned me, I withdrew my hand, attempting to stifle my shudder of repulsion.

"Okay, it's a truce," the teenager stated a bit awkwardly.

"Good," I stated. "So, what first?"

* * *

**Katara:**

Closing my eyes, I attempted to _feel_ for water like Master Pakku taught me. He said once that water has a special kind of push and pull, even if it's frozen, and if you're a good enough waterbender, you can feel that push and pull even from a large distance away. I was hoping to do that now, but I just wasn't sure if I could.

Zuko was still standing next to me, his arms at his side and his breathing intentionally quiet, so as to help me focus. A part of me wondered why he hadn't just left, but the other half of my mind was just happy that I didn't have to be alone. After all, enemy or not, I would still rather be in the company of another person.

I could barely feel the burn on my arm now, and, having gotten a good look at it, I could tell that it really wasn't all that severe. It was only slightly painful to move my arm, kind of like a bad sunburn. This fact definitely consoled me, along with the idea the Zuko hadn't burned me on purpose. A quick healing on my arm, and it would be as good as new.

Of course, the idea of finding water in and of itself was quite a relief. I had exhausted all of the other puddles in the general area of the campsite while fighting against Zuko, and I had used the other portion of it earlier this afternoon to make some soup for lunch, which I now realized was cold anyway, considering the fact I hadn't been able to make a fire to warm it up; I think Sokka might have taken the spark rocks with him when he left.

_Well, at least he won't freeze out here_, I thought.

As I heard Zuko shift on his feet, causing the dry leaves on the forest floor to crackle a little bit, I was snapped back to reality and realized that I hadn't been very focused on finding water for the past few minutes. Slowly, I cleared my mind again, and I focused on the push and pull of my surroundings.

Sure enough, among all of the other sensations of nearby water, I could feel a larger source in the distance. It pulled its way along rocks and moss galore and fell slightly with each dip in the ground. It was a stream, definitely. With a smile, I honed in on the location, and, after a few more moments spent making sure I knew exactly where it was, I opened my eyes to look at Zuko, who had been remarkably patient.

The way he shifted on his feet had actually been so that he could find a comfortable sitting spot. His eyes had closed, and he wore a calm smile on his face. I felt a bit bad about disturbing him.

Still, I tapped the firebender on the shoulder, saying, "Zuko, I know where we can find some water."

He opened his gold eyes slowly and then looked at me, nodding before lifting himself up. "Good," he said softly.

With that, Zuko and I struck out away from my camp, ready to find some water, and a part of me was really happy not to be alone anymore.

* * *

**Aang:**

There was definitely something odd about this forest. There was certain energy flowing through the trees, a certain form of life pulsating throughout that gave me a strange sense of self-awareness. It made me more alert and aware of my surroundings, yet it seemed to coat everything in some sort of a fog. It reminded me of the spiritual energy I felt at the North Pole and in the swamp. I felt like those places had their own sense of time, a time kept and known only by the strange spirits that lived there.

The sun was setting, staining the skies orange and tinging the clouds purple. The shadows of the trees steadily grew longer with each passing moment. I couldn't hear as many animals in the woods anymore. Most of the noises I heard consisted of the winds blowing through the leaves. A chill slowly fanned out among the trees, too, something I noticed with a shiver. I guess that nights in these woods can get fairly cold.

With the knowledge that it was almost nighttime, I knew that it would be time to stop and go to sleep soon. This meant that we would have to find _somewhere _to sleep, which would be kind of difficult in the dark. Also, I didn't really know what we were going to sleep inside of. The nights in these woods are cold, so how would Toph and I stay warm in the night without sleeping bags or tents?

Of course, I didn't really mind the "sleeping in the woods" part. I mean, that kind of stuff is actually really fun. It was sleeping in the woods _with Toph_ that really bothered me. I mean, it wouldn't matter if we were acting like friends or actually were friends. But we weren't. We were fighting, so she was refusing to speak to me, and I personally didn't want to talk to_ her, _either.

I know that the monks always taught that forgiving another person is the first step to being forgiven...But still. I still can't stop thinking about Appa, and I still can't stop thinking about how Toph is somewhat to blame for losing him.

Peering into the distance in front of me at the abnormally subdued earthbender, I sighed and pushed such mean thoughts out of my mind. They weren't going to help anything, and neither was blaming Toph for something that maybe wasn't entirely her fault. It wouldn't bring Appa back. No, the only thing that would help us find Appa was to work together to make it back to the others and reach Ba Sing Se. Then, maybe, sometime soon hopefully, she would forgive me.

"Hey, Toph!" I called, my voice, a bit sore from lack of use during the past few hours. "Wait for me!"

* * *

**Zuko:**

It was shocking to me how dense the trees in this forest were. They had grown so tall, too. I knew it would be easy to get lost here, so Katara and I would have to walk carefully. I was glad to be walking with her, though, as it seemed from the pace of her steps that she clearly knew where we were headed.

We had been walking for a while, maybe an hour, maybe more. Time passed differently here, where the shade within the trees was so dark that sometimes, under a particularly dense grove, it was almost impossible to see. Instead of time passing by the angle of the sun, it passed by the chirps of birds and scuttling of animals. The whole forest pulsed with a life that both scared me and made me want to learn more. It was its own place, isolated by the trees that were its very foundation.

I heard the stream before I saw it. It sounded gentle, smooth, which struck me as odd, considering it had just rained a few days ago. Wouldn't it have been much stronger?

Katara seemed to be thinking the same thing, because she looked at me, a quizzical expression on her face. "Don't you think it's weird that it's running so slowly?" she asked, peering back at the water.

It was clear, and my confused reflection looked back at me, perplexed. Absently, I touched my scar and frowned, almost tempted to throw something into the stream. Anything to avoid looking at it. Suddenly quite grumpy at the thought of my scar, I shrugged, sitting on a nearby log and feigning nonchalance in the midst of my grouchiness.

"Water's water," I said gruffly. "That's what you were looking for, and you found it. It's whatever."

Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say, especially to a waterbender. "Well, you came with me!" Katara said angrily, putting her hands on her hips and fixing me with a glare. "I was only trying to make conversation!"

Great. I was sulking, not trying to make anyone mad, and I'd just said something stupid. Now she was pissed at me! What had I even said? Damn it! Girls were so confusing.

"Uh, sorry," I muttered finally. The apology (if something so stupid could even be called that) sounded lame even to me.

That caused her to sigh, running a hand through her hair - - - which I just noticed she had taken down. It looked soft. _Focus, Zuko! _

"No, it's my fault. I'm sorry I got angry with you. It's just..." She sighed again. "I'm just scared about what the others are up to."

Of course. She was anxious about how the rest of her group was doing. I wasn't sure what to say to that. Come to think of it, I was sorta nervous about Uncle's well-being. But I didn't want to say that to her. She'd probably think it was dumb.

Instead, I changed the subject. "It's fine. Why don't you just collect some water?" I asked, trying to make my voice sound welcoming and gentle. I was pretty sure I failed, given the way Katara frowned at me.

Instead of saying anything in response, though, she just nodded and bent a bit of water from the stream and into her waterskin. Then, she set to work on the burn I had given her. A tinge of guilt caused me to look away as she drew back the sleeve.

But then, I was a bit curious about how she was going to go about healing the wound, so I looked back to find her bending more water from the stream. I watched, transfixed, as the water glowed blue, bathing her tan skin in an almost otherworldly light, and she placed her now-shining hand on her arm. I was pretty sure that I looked really stupid, just staring, open-mouthed at this display, but I just couldn't help it. She was waterbending, and she was healing.

After a few moments, Katara was seemingly content with the way her burn had healed, so water abruptly stopped glowing and simply ran off her arm, harmless. To say that I was surprised by this use of waterbending would be an understatement. Uncle had once told me that waterbenders could heal like this, but I had never seen it in real life, and I didn't think that Uncle had, either.

When Katara caught me looking at her, her expression, which had been a mix between what I perceived as determined and slightly hostile, shifted into something softer. A few moments passed, though, and her expression changed once again into confusion. That was when I realized - - by looking at my insipidly stupid reflection in the stream - - - that I was outright gawking at her.

Quickly, I closed my mouth and mumbled a stupid apology and felt really stupid. "That was really...Cool," I said stupidly.

The corners of her lips quirked up slightly, and I could tell that she was trying hard not to laugh - - - probably at my stupidity. "Thanks," she responded nonetheless. Then, she looked at me expectantly, and I frowned.

"What?" I asked, sharply but not unkindly.

"Weren't you going to get water, too, Zuko?" she asked me. For some reason, I was distracted by the way by which she said my name.

I tried to snap myself out of it by digging my nonexistent nails into my hand the way Azula used to to my skin, but instead of making it bleed like hers did, my fingers just hurt. "Uh, yeah," I said, making a move to the stream.

My legs were shaky from standing in one place for too long, and my mind was distracted with thoughts of a Water Tribe peasant who should _not_ be occupying them! So, I guess it was only fitting that there was a particularly mossy rock right next to the stream onto which I just _had _ to place my already-shaky foot. I vaguely heard her call out my name in alarm, but there was nothing either of us could do by the time we both noticed.

I fell into the frigid water with a loud splash.

* * *

**Toph:**

I was shocked when Twinkletoes wanted to walk with me, but I didn't question it. Yeah, I was pissed at him, but he was also the only other person in the woods, and I knew I would go crazy without anyone to talk to - - - or make fun of. With a sigh, I sat on a nearby stump and waited for him to catch up with me.

It didn't take long, and soon, I felt his pitter-pattering footsteps coming from behind me. I sighed almost inaudibly as he finally stopped next to my stump.

"Hey, Toph," he said, and I could _hear _his smile.

Beneath his grin, though, I sensed the remorse from his posture. Did he feel sorry already? I didn't want to ask, because as blunt as I would be normally, I didn't want to scare the kid off or make our fight worse than it was.

I mean, it was different the first time, when we were out in the dry scrubby, flat land, but here in the woods, I could barely see a thing. I didn't want to be separated from him. It felt like there was something here that I really didn't want to meet, especially not on my own.

"What's up, Twinkletoes?" I asked, keeping my voice neutral as I rose from my seat.

He shrugged, a big enough motion for me to feel, and then spoke as well. "Nothing much," he responded. "So, you hungry?"

I shrugged in answer. "I guess a little but not really," I said nonchalantly. "You?"

"I'm not hungry, either."

_Liar._

Normally, I would have called him out on it, but instead, I just said, "Whatever. Maybe we'll both be hungry enough to eat in a few hours."

A smug smirk formed on my face almost subconsciously as Twinkletoes's heart beat faster, and he shifted slightly, probably trying to resist the urge to hold his hungry stomach in front of me. It was revenge, sweet, sweet, revenge, and it honestly made me feel a bit better.

With that, we began walking again in a comfortable silence. Well, at least it was comfortable for me. After all, I wasn't the hungry one. Okay, fine. Maybe I was a _tiny bit _hungry, but a badass like me can last plenty of time without food, unlike pansies like Twinkletoes. Alright, maybe I was a bit more than a little hungry...I wasn't going to tell _him _that though. That'd be _giving in_, and I'm too damn tough to do something so wimpy.

My thoughts were cut off as I noticed a noise behind me. I heard Twinkletoes's stomach rumble a little bit, and I felt his heart beat a bit faster in embarrassment.

I resisted the urge to chuckle; I hadn't needed my enhanced ears or feet to detect _that _sound. "Hungry, Twinkletoes?" I asked a little tauntingly.

"Nah, I'm good," he answered.

"You're lying," I teased. I could feel my mouth build itself into a smug smirk, and I didn't bother to hide it from him.

He sighed. "Alright, so I might be _a little _hungry, but you are, too!" Twinkletoes accused.

I shrugged. "Okay, you got me," I replied.

I was kinda relieved to be eating something, even though I was a bit mad that Twinkletoes managed to figure out I was hungry.

"Alright, then," he said. The smile and the relief rang out clearly in his voice. "Let's find some food!"

* * *

**Katara:**

Oh, Spirits! How had this happened? One minute, Zuko and I were having an almost-argument, and the next-he fell into the stream! Quickly, I sprung into a stance, using my bending to pull him free of the current, which, in all honesty, wasn't that strong, considering the stream only went up to my knees. Even so, Zuko was having a considerable amount of difficulty swimming his way back out, so I gave him a little bit of help.

With a little tug, I pulled him out and made sure that he landed safely on the bank. Zuko coughed for a few moments, catching his breath, and then gave me a small smile.

"Thanks," he said gratefully, taking my offered hand.

Quickly, I dried him using my bending and then launched into a scolding of his stupid behavior. "Why did you get so close to the stream? And why did you let yourself fall in like that?" I demanded. In all honesty, I was _a little bit_ worried about him.

He instantly got mad, which I should've seen coming. "Why are you blaming this on me? I fell by accident!" he retorted.

Sighing, I let it go. For now. After all, I could tell him he was in the wrong a million times, but firebenders just don't listen.

"How about I get the water now?" I asked him in my trying-to-be-a-mom way, as Sokka calls it. Before he even answered, I was already slipping into a bending stance.

"Yeah, thanks," Zuko replied, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. I was pretty sure that most of what he did was done awkwardly.

"No problem," I answered, taking his offered canteen and filling it easily.

Handing it back to him with a small smile, I took in his expression. Zuko looked to be thoughtful. I wondered, idly, what he was thinking about, but I didn't want to get him mad again.

"So," he said, breaking the silence that had fallen, "your friends are all gone?"

Thoughts of the others instantly filled me, and worry replaced the calm that had been inside of my mind before. Were they okay? Were Sokka, Toph, and Aang already back at camp?

"Yeah," I said, heaving a sigh. Thinking about it made it feel all the more real, and I sat down heavily on a rock that was jutting out from the bank, unable to stand any longer.

Hesitantly, Zuko sat next to me. "Listen," he said in a tone that said he didn't really know how to be comforting but was trying, "I'm sure they'll be just fine. After all, they're together."

That was true, and I told him so, but a part of me was still nervous.

He gave me a calm look that told me he could tell what I was thinking. "You're worried about them, aren't you? I'm sorry for bringing it up," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. He seemed to do this when he was embarrassed or feeling awkward. I found it strangely endearing.

"No," I said softly. "It's okay."

We were quiet for a minute, and it was kind of peaceful. The two of us were sitting on a stump, just listening to the sounds around us. It felt really isolated and calm, just the birds and movements in the trees.

Finally, Zuko spoke, in kind of a small voice, his words slow and measured. "Sometimes, I worry about someone who I lost." He paused here, and I looked at him, trying to get a read on what he was thinking. His eyes looked in my direction, but I could tell that his mind was far away, probably still within memories. "I worry about that person a lot, wondering if everything's alright, if that person is safe...but then I think...And I realize that worrying about them only makes you feel worse sometimes...Sometimes, you're just gotta have faith and _hope_ that they're okay."

* * *

**Sokka:**

A swell of relief coursed through me as Azula took my hand to shake on our deal with each other. Quickly, I amended that thought; calling her by her name would lead to trust, and I certainly _didn't _trust the _NUTCASE princess who tried to _**_kill _**_us on multiple occasions_. I decided from that point forward, I would only call her Crazy Blue Fire Girl, for the sake of my own sanity.

My arm relaxed in her strong grip; now that I didn't have any immediate cause to fear for my life, I could focus on other things, like navigating our way out of the woods. My mind rapidly made a list of all the things we would need, the simple necessities: food, water, firewood, which was in abundance due to the fact we were in the woods, a map, somewhere safe to sleep, and some blankets of some sort.

The sun was quickly dipping in the sky, shedding steadily weaker light as the moments passed, telling me that it had to be late afternoon. That meant it was almost night time, and that meant it would be getting quite cold really soon (hence the need for blankets).

Before I could ponder where we would possibly find these necessities, though, Crazy Blue Fire Girl (_Spirits, I had to come up with a shorter nickname for her_) cut me out of my wandering thoughts.

"Good," she'd said, releasing my arm from her grasp, which had been pleasantly warm.

_No, she's Crazy Blue Fire Girl! _I thought instantly, resolving to try even harder to avoid thoughts of Crazy Blue Fire Girl's oddly warm hands.

She continued primly, seemingly ignorant of my inner struggle. "So, what first?"

And I responded that I had a crazy long list that was almost as crazy as she was. Get it? Cause she's _Crazy Blue Fire Girl?_ Yeah, I crack myself up sometimes...

But _she _didn't seem to think it was that funny and actually looked kinda pissed about it. I forget sometimes that crazy people don't always like to be _called _crazy...Oops.

Well, I quickly back-tracked and apologized to the crazy princess and said that we needed some firewood for starters to which she laughed.

"What's so funny?" I asked angrily, folding my arms. "If we don't have a fire, we can't stay warm-and worse: we can't cook any food!"

Her chuckles died down as she tried to speak, and she caught her breath quickly, wiping imaginary tears of laughter from her eyes.

"Hello? _Fire_bender here." To illustrate her point, Crazy Blue Fire Girl caused a slightly wavering flame to materialize in the palm of her hand. "I don't think making fires will be a problem." She rolled her eyes, probably at my forgetfulness, and might have mumbled something along the lines of _idiot _under her breath.

_Oops...forgot about that..._I mentally slapped myself for forgetting that Crazy Blue **Fire** Girl was a **fire**bender, but instead of dwelling on it, I tacked off the rest of my list of supplies.

"We also need some food and water and backpacks and a map and maybe some rope-"

She cut me off abruptly. "_You _can read a map?" she asked incredulously. I could swear that I heard some admiration in her sharp tone.

"Uh, yeah!" I pointed to myself proudly and put the other hand on my hip in a stance of haughty male power. "_I'm _the navigator in the group!"

She seemed unimpressed and stated, her tone bored and cool, "Well, I _had _a map, but it's ruined now because of a run through a stream."

I sighed woefully. What a sad death for a perfectly good map. But then, I remembered that I was talking to Crazy Blue Fire Girl and put my guard back up. After all, who knows when her craziness will strike?

"Well," I said, breaking the awkward new-silence, "we should at least pool together our supplies."

She nodded, surprisingly, and didn't give me any lip about it. I guess Crazy Blue Fire Girl _really _wanted to live through this. But then, so did I.

Crazy Blue Fire Girl had a small pack beneath her muddy cloak. Inside, she had one change of clothes for herself, which was probably handy, given the fact hers were completely ruined, littered with rips, and even stained with blood in places. I shuddered at the thought that not all of it was _her _blood. Shaking that scary idea out of my head (really, I didn't need yet another reason to fear for my wellbeing), I got back to examining the few belongings she had apparently managed to grab.

Food-wise, she had some dried fruit, a small pouch of what appeared to be lychee-nuts, a pouch labelled "fire flakes", which I could only assume were those Spirits-awful, sadistic snacks I tried back at the Fire Nation colony. My tongue burned in agony at the memory. This food would only last us a couple of days at best, and, combined with the jerky I'd been munching on before falling into the bush and whatever we could forage or catch, we would end up with some pretty boring, scant meals. My stomach growled just thinking about it.

She also had with her a scroll of some kind, but when I asked her about it, she shrugged dismissively.

"It's just a message from my father: a progress report about the takeover of Omashu- -I mean, New Ozai." Her quick correction of herself made me raise an eyebrow, but I didn't question it.

"What else do you have?" I asked instead. After all, it was a small pack, but a bit of food and a change of clothes still weren't much...

"I have another cloak, a dagger that belongs to Mai, and a book I was reading. That's it." Once again, her tone was curt, but Crazy Blue Fire Girl kindly passed me the objects for examination.

The cloak was a nice material, but I knew from experience that it would do little to keep her warm. The book was a book about Fire Nation history, but with one flip through it, I could tell that it was laden with propaganda. The dagger, though, was pretty nice and well-sharpened, so my now-cut finger can say!

Blood quickly trickled from the cut, and I yelped in surprise when I noticed it. "Crap," I muttered, about to rip my shirt to make an impromptu bandage.

"I think I have some bandages in here somewhere," Crazy Blue Fire Girl said absently, her eyes peering at the cut in an abnormally unfocused manner.

"It's not that bad," I replied, almost concerned at the way she was almost on the verge of unconsciousness.

And really, it wasn't that bad. It was mostly just a showy cut (Katara's name for the ones that bled like crazy but weren't fatal) and would stop bleeding soon.

"I can't have my prisoner bleeding to death. That would make me a bad jailer," she responded, her voice almost...joking. Her tone sounded light, but there was something off about it, too, like her her focus was fading.

I frowned as she took a few steps towards her bag, which I had placed nearby, her body lurching towards her left side dangerously and then bobbing back to the right abruptly, leaning heavily on her unbroken ankle. Why was she moving like that? Why did she look like she was going to-

My thoughts cut off as Crazy Blue Fire Girl collapsed to the ground with a thud.

_To Be Continued..._

* * *

**A/N:**

Life has been a bit nuts lately, so I haven't really had a chance to sit down and write, and for that, I am really sorry. But I'm not going to give a long excuse or whatever... Anyway, thank you for reading, and I hope you'll find it in your hearts to drop me a review (or twenty :D). Have a great day!

* * *

**And, on the note of reviews, here are some replies to my anonymous readers from last chapter!**

**To Louise: **I'm really grateful to hear that you don't think the characters' interactions are forced. I was a little bit worried about that while writing the past chapter, so you'll have to tell me how I did on this one! Thanks so much for taking the time to review my story, and I hope you're still reading this!

**To Puffy: **Wow! I'm so happy that you like this story! I hope that even after this massive (almost month-long) lapse, I've managed to keep your attention. Please keep reading and give me any feedback you have about the characters! Thanks so much for reviewing!

**To Larissa: **Hey, girl! I'm still alive, and I'm totally missing seeing you more often! I'm glad you like Sokka. I think that my developing idea of him makes this story more interesting! Thanks for reviewing and being a constant inspiration to us all!

**To Henri: **Thanks for reviewing, Henri! I think I agree that the readability is improving. It feels like it's getting easier and more coherent the more I work on the chapters. Thanks for the compliment on the dialogue, and thank you again for giving me feedback! You rule!

* * *

**On that note, I'm out for now! And if you've read this far, I believe that you, my dear reader, deserve a virtual internet-cookie of some sort! So, since I only typically give internet-cookies to reviewers, I think that the little button down on the bottom of your screen is just begging to be pressed. Please give me feedback (but only if you want to!)!**

**Thanks for reading and thanks to anyone who has favorited, followed, and, of course, reviewed! Until next time!**


	6. Chapter 5: The Shift

**Summary:** Luck is a funny thing; you never know when it's going to run out. Another weird thing about luck is that you never know whether it's good or bad until it's all said and done, and you look back and realize, "Hey, that wasn't so bad!" Set during Book 2, eventual AU.

**Main Pairings:** Sokkla, Zutara, and Taang

**Word Count: **

**WARNINGS: **AU, OOC (I prefer character-growth, but I suppose it depends on how you look at it), Crack pairings, Zutara (a Kataang friend of mine told me to write that), possible references to homosexuality and incest.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender (NOTICE THE BOLD FONT!)**

* * *

**_Previously in _****The Gilded Throne...**

_Sokka:_

_I frowned as she took a few steps towards her bag, which I had placed nearby, her body lurching towards her left side dangerously and then bobbing back to the right abruptly, leaning heavily on her unbroken ankle. Why was she moving like that? Why did she look like she was going to-_

_My thoughts cut off as Crazy Blue Fire Girl collapsed to the ground with a thud._

* * *

**The Gilded Throne**

**Chapter 5: The Shift**

* * *

**Sokka:**

Okay, so she had looked a little pale before, but I had never imagined that Crazy Blue Fire Girl could possibly be _that_ injured. And _man_, she must be pretty hurt that she'd just fall over like that.

Fortunately, I managed to catch her falling head before it hit a root;I knew that when she woke up, she**'**d definitely set me on fire for that if I didn't. I _definitely_ didn't do it to be nice to her. I did it so that she wouldn't burn me into a nub for it, okay?

The first thing I did was slap both her cheeks (Gently; I am a _gentleman, _after all.) to see if she would wake up. Once I was _sure_ she was out cold, I started panicking; I didn't want Crazy Blue Fire Girl to actually see how freaked out her little fainting spell had made me, and it would be totallyembarrassing if she woke up while I was worrying over her.

After making sure she wasn't going to get up, I pulled a blanket and her cloak from my pack and laid her on my blanket, making sure she was would probably get really madat me if I got her stupid, impractical cloak dirty, and I really didn't want to get burned. This is in no way because _I_ didn't want her cloak to get leaves all over it (Even though I will admit it was kind of a nice material), and it _definitely_ had nothing to do with me wanting to be helpful to her. I just value my life, that's all.

For a while, I just stood there and waited for Crazy Blue Fire Girl to wake up and start shooting fire at me. It was getting colder, and I shivered. I should have gotten her to start a fire_ before _she went and knocked herself out. After all, making fires is one of the few things a firebender is actually _good _for.

The cut on my hand told me how much time had passed as the bleeding slowed, and I sat down on my choice of seating was slightly strategic; I situated myself closely enough to her that I would be able to watch and see when she woke up and but was far enough away sothat if she started spitting fire at me in her sleep (Because a firebender would _so _do that!), I would be able to scramble away in time so I wouldn't get burned.

Crazy Blue Fire Girl looked so pale and still in the light of the setting sun, which shone weakly through the leaves above her. She looked young, and really vulnerable.

Fine, I'll admit that I was worried about her. After all, I was alone in the woods, and I had been alone in the woods for a few hours now, and she had saved me from a bunch of platypus-bears, so it wasn't completely unreasonable to think that _maybe_ Crazy Blue Fire Girl deserved a little bit of help from me. It was nothing personal, though. I mean, I just didn't want her to die before we made it out of the woods. After all, a promise is a promise. Yeah! That's why I didn't want her to die; I made her a promise that I'd help her, so there. I wasn't actually _worried_ about_ her_.

Looking down at her once again and moving slightly closer to her, I could tell that Crazy Blue Fire Girl looked _really _bad, not just _plain _bad, like I'd thought before, so I took a little water from my canteen and the cloth that I usually reserved for cleaning my weapons and began to wipe the blood and grime from her face. Again, I only did it for the sake of my promise to her; I'm a man of my word.

She didn't even react when the lukewarm water hit her skin. It was almost like she was dead, only her chest would rise and fall with her breathing, so I knew she wasn't _actually_ dead. It was no less scary, though. I mean, yeah, she was the enemy, but we _did _have a truce.

A really cruel thought ran through my head at that moment. Crazy Blue Fire Girl _had _said that either party could terminate the truce at any time, so why didn't I just _terminate_ the truce and leave her to the platypus-bears? After all, she kind of deserved it for chasing us around the Earth Kingdom and attacking Aang...

Then, I looked back down at her prone form and felt a little ashamed at myself. To make up for such mean, cruel thinking (Thoughts for which Katara definitely would have given me a good tongue-lashing), I set to my task of making her comfortable with renewed gusto. I would make Crazy Blue Fire Girl as cozy as I possibly could so that she would wake up nice and early and not stay unconscious and leave me alone in the woods forever.

* * *

**Aang:**

After gobbling a quick but much-needed meal of berries and nuts that I found, Toph set to making a rocky fortress, which was a bit harder than usual, because the rocks here were deep in the ground, or so she said. While she did this, I walked around the vicinity of our camp and looked around, carefully marking my way, of course, so I wouldn't get lost- - -or more lost than we already were.

Once again, I couldn't help but notice how weird the woods were, how they gave off a bizarre sort of energy that made me a bit uncomfortable. It pulsed around me, buzzing like vulture-wasps and ebbing and flowing like the tides. It made me feel nervous, like that feeling you get when you're being watched. The bushes rustled slightly, and the sounds of the leaves brushing together really scared me for some reason, making me glad that I wasn't completely alone, and Toph was really close by. With that thought in mind, I continued scavenging, maybe for something to use as a blanket tonight.

As I looked around, I suddenly realized that Katara and Sokka were probably worried sick about us. There was nothing I could do about that now...I hoped that they were okay, though...and Momo, too. They were all just fine;I was sure of it.

After what happened in the desert, we all went to the nearest town, which was just outside of the woods...smack-dab between the desert and the forest, actually. There, we all bought some new supplies, including sleeping bags for all of us, some spark rocks, and some food. Those things would help Katara and Sokka for sure, especially given the fact it could get kinda cold in the woods, especially at night.

Before I could keep thinking about the others, I stumbled and tripped on something on the mossy ground, falling flat on my face.

"Ow," I mumbled, lifting myself up.

I looked down at what I'd tripped over and gasped. There had been something made of fabric sticking out of the leaves, and my slipping over it had uncovered what it was. It was a blanket that had been hidden under the moss! I dug around in the leaves some more and found a canteen, which was unfortunately empty, some spark rocks, and an oil lantern that still had some oil left in it. I dusted the dirt off of them, gently brushing off the little bugs that had settled there, too.

In my excitement, I almost forgot about the fact I had just created a little hole in the ground and quickly replaced the piles of leaves and moss back into the divot so that Toph and I wouldn't have something to fall into later tonight.

Toph had finished setting up the rock tent when I got back. She'd also cleared part of the ground not too far away from the tent of its floor of leaves and put a ring of rocks around the patch of dirt in the perfect place for us to start a fire to keep warm. She noticed me instantly from where she had been sitting on one of the two logs she had set out.

"Hey, Twinkletoes. What did you find?" she asked casually, not getting up and pretending nonchalance, though I could tell she was curious.

"I think other people were camping here," I said, deciding to voice my concern.

"How do you know that?" asked Toph skeptically.

I ignored her rudeness and said, "I found a blanket, a set of spark rocks, and an empty canteen."

"Oh." She shifted in her seat slightly and then shrugged. "Well, they're clearly gone now, so you shouldn't worry about them, Twinkletoes," she added.

I felt a need to defend my curiosity. "I wasn't worried. I'm just thinking...If there are other people here, do you think there are other people here? I mean, the spot looks pretty clean, but this stuff was buried pretty quickly." I paused to take a breath. "Did you find anything interesting?"

"Nope," Toph replied, popping the "p" in a way that annoyed me for some reason. "But maybe I can look around some more tomorrow."

It was almost nightfall and, already, the air was getting colder. I was suddenly very glad for the blanket and for my discovery of spark rocks. It would be pretty awful to have to camp out without any light or warmth.

Toph broke the silence. "So, Twinkletoes, are we gonna eat some dinner or something?"

My stomach rumbled just as she said that, and the idea of food suddenly struck me as quite inviting. "Yeah, that sounds good," I said, taking the canteen and filling it with some water from a puddle.

It wasn't much of a dinner it turned out. There weren't that many vegetables in the forest that I was sure we could eat, so I stayed away from the mushrooms that were growing near our campsite. Instead, we ended up drinking some hot water and eating a few nuts and berries. I was pretty sure Toph was a bit upset about something, but for the life of me, I just couldn't figure out what.

"What's wrong?" I asked her as we sat together by the fire, drinking some water I had heated up.

"Nothing, Twinkletoes," she said stubbornly. "It's nothing. I'm fine."

I sighed and didn't ask again, not wanting her to be angry with me again. We sat in silence for a few minutes, and I just listened to the crackling of the fire. I watched as the trees around us got steadily darker and the shadows of the forest grew more and more wicked-looking. Yup, this place was definitely creepy.

Finally, Toph spoke up again, seeming to pick up on my fear. "Do you think the others are alright?" she asked bluntly.

I didn't know how to answer. I mean, in all honesty, I wasn't sure at all. I wanted to think that maybe they were, and a part of me was depending on the idea that everyone was going to be alright, but at the same time I didn't want to lie to Toph.

"I don't know," I answered, sighing again and looking out across our campsite.

There was another short pause before Toph took a breath and spoke. "It's just weird not to have them here, you know," she said softly.

I was about to respond, but she continued.

"I mean, I'm used to being alone, but this is different. These woods are really different, Twinkletoes. The earth here is weird." She shivered, and I wondered if it was only from the cold. "I was trying to bend, and it was like the ground itself was fighting against me. I feel like we're not welcome here..."

Her words reminded me of the story that old woman told Sokka when he'd been buying some vegetables. It was about people who went into the woods and never came out. Sokka had told it to us over dinner the night before last in his usual sarcastic, incredulous way.

The night before last night felt like an eternity ago, back when we had all been together and hadn't had a single reason to fear. We had decided to stay in an inn after leaving the desert. Katara could tell that I was pretty upset about Appa, so she had tried to comfort me. Everyone had...

Spirits! Katara and Sokka had been with us just last night, when we had camped in the woods! But now, they were gone.

_No_, they weren't gone forever. Toph and I already knew where to go to reach the next village, and we were pretty close already. It was probably one more day's journey before we reached it, so we could regroup there. After all, Sokka had a map and a compass so he and Katara could navigate the woods as easily as I can airbend!

There was no way they could get lost as long as they were together. I told this to Toph, and she agreed, and it made me feel a lot better in the dark, dark woods, even though I still felt like I was being watched.

* * *

**Katara:**

It was a real relief to have water in my water skin again. Zuko and I returned to the campsite after the stream incident in relative silence. I didn't question why Zuko was still with me, and I didn'thave any desire to do so. I was still a bit shaken by the others' being gone from camp, so I didn't want to be alone, especially not if I could be with someone else, no matter how _undesirable_ he may be.

When we arrived in the campsite it was unchanged, except Momo was currently sitting comfortably on a log near the now-nonexistent campfire, picking at the soup I had my pot of soup sat forgotten. He was picking at aforementioned soup quite contentedly.

The winged lemur chattered when he saw me and landed happily on my shoulder, getting comfortable.

"Hi, Momo," I cooed, honestly happy to see him. "I missed you, too, little fella."

Then, I looked around the site and was dismayed to find that there was no sign of anyone else in our little group. We were still alone.

"Your friends still haven't come back, have they?" asked Zuko, breaking into the silence.

_What does it look like? _I wanted to shout at him, but I didn't have the energy.

"No," I answered sullenly, still petting Momo for the sake of doing something with my hands. I sat myself down on a log near the fire pit and gestured for Zuko to join me.

He looked a bit hesitant for some reason, and I frowned at him. "What's wrong?"

Zuko sighed. "I think I should get going," he said softly. "I mean, you're back at camp, I have water- - -" He gestured to his canteen, shaking it to prove to me that there was, indeed, water inside. "- - -And I feel as though I've over-stayed my welcome."

I didn't want to sound desperate, but the idea of Zuko leaving at that moment scared me a little bit. I had no idea when the others would come back, and the trees were getting darker by the moment, and it was dangerous and scary and- - -Okay, I was _terrified_ at the idea of being left alone here.

"You haven't overstayed your welcome at all!" I argued instantly, trying vainly to modulate my voice. "And it's too dark for you to leave now! You should stay here for the night, just until morning..." I trailed off at the realization that I was actually begging _Zuko _of all people to stay with me at camp.

"I can't," he said, folding his arms and sounding genuinely regretful. "My uncle is all alone, too, and he's still hurt from when Azula shot him and- - -" He cut himself off, and his posture grew tense for some reason.

An idea flashed through my head as he mentioned his uncle's injury, and I have no idea what possessed me to actually say it out loud, but I did. "How about this: You stay here with me for one night, and tomorrow, I'll come with you to your campsite and heal your uncle. I have healing powers, remember?"

"I don't know- - -" Before he could finish his sentence, he cut himself off again. "Did you hear it this time?"

I frowned. "Hear what?" I asked him. He'd heard something?

"Yeah, I heard it twice now," he answered.

He was concentrating on something, his eyes sliding closed and his shoulders and back straight. I was sure that if he were an Arctic-wolf, his ears would be pricked, too.

"What is it?" I whispered.

"Shhh!" he hissed harshly.

His noise caused Momo to chatter nervously and then jump out of my arms.

I felt a bit affronted. Had he just _shushed_ me? Before I could retort, he shot me a scared look and put a finger to his lips, gesturing to his ear. I wanted to ask what he had heard and what he was listening for, but instead, I listened, too, keeping my ears trained to the brush around us.

Finally, I heard what he had been listening for, and my heart started pounding. I heard quiet orders.

_"I heard the firebenders talking," _a male voicewhispered. _"We have to keep quiet."_

_"They know we're here, sir." _This voice was a bit more gravelly, and I noticed a tinge of anticipation lacing the curt words.

I looked at Zuko, my desperation matched in his gaze. There had to be at least twenty soldiers, judging by the noises of the other men I could hear when I focused on them, way too many to fight against, at least on my own. Besides, it was getting dark, so Zuko's bending would be weakened. My own bending would be stronger, but I only had the soup, a few puddles, and our canteens of water to fight with.

"What do we do?" I whispered.

"We have to fight our way through," Zuko murmured, his mouth barely moving. "It's an ambush; they must have been sneaking up on us for awhile. The only way we're getting out is to fight. We're surrounded." His voice was grim, and his expression was scared, but he offered his hand to me. "Truce," he said.

A swell of something I could not identify coursed through me as I took Zuko's arm and shook it in Water Tribe fashion. He seemed to be surprised by the handshake, but he didn't say anything about it.

"I've got your back, and you've got mine," he said instead.

I nodded and opened my mouth to speak, but whatever I had been about to say was drowned out by the battle cries of the soldiers bursting through the trees.

* * *

**Toph:**

We sat in silence for a few minutes, and I just probed outwards with my feet, like I'd been trying to do all day. Normally, daytime and nighttime don't really have many differences to me. It's always dark, and I can always see. But here, in the woods, there _was _a difference.

During the day, the sun's rays shone on me, and even though I couldn't _see_ them, I could _feel _them warming my body. They helped to distract me from the weird vibrations the forest was giving off, too. This place was hostile to me, it seemed. I could feel the earth itself trying to tell me something, maybe warning me. The message was garbled and muted because of the layers of leaves and moss covering everything.

In a shocking turn of events, Twinkletoes broke the silence, which was starting to become almost unbearable in the presence of those vibrations.

"So, Toph, tomorrow, if we walk quickly enough, I think we'll be able to reach the town I saw. Then, we can regroup and find the others." He sounded hopeful.

I wish I could share his hope, but the whole creepy forest thing was kinda making that difficult.

"That sounds good," I said nonetheless, not wanting to voice my insecurities when he seemed so happy.

"Do you really think the others will be there when we arrive?" he asked, saying exactly what I'd been thinking.

"I hope so," I replied softly. "I mean, not that spending time with you sucks or anything," I added, giving him a soft punch in the arm.

He chuckled good-naturedly, but I could tell it was forced. He was just as nervous as I was.

I decided that maybe changing the subject would help. Having been isolated from other kids my age for most of my life, I can't say I'm exactly a conversationalist. "So, Twinkletoes, what did you guys do at the Air Temples to enjoy yourselves?"

The calmness he had had before had all but left. _Nice job, Toph_, I scolded myself mentally as I felt his posture tense. He obviously didn't want to talk about this.

"It's okay if you don't want to talk about it," I said awkwardly. "I get it."

"No," said Aang, surprising me with the sincerity in his voice. "I'm fine with talking about it." He paused and took a breath. "Well, the monks would have classes with us, meant to teach us how to find spiritual freedom. A lot of the older monks could meditate for days at a time without eating or drinking or anything. It waspretty amazing."

I could hear the smile he got in his voice when he talked about his home. Another bonus to getting the kid talking again was that it distracted me from the creepy vibes.

"Sometimes we would play this game called air-ball," he went on excitedly. "All the monks my age and I would play it together, and it was so much fun."

I thought about my own friends back home: the badger-moles. I hoped they were okay without me around, but I guess they must've made new friends. It must be nice to have other human friends, though, and Twinkletoes seems to make them so easily. Maybe he would be able to teach me how to make friends after I teach him earthbending. We did get a little start on it, but, having built up my own style and forms for as long as I can remember, I have infinite things that I want to teach him.

Amidst all of my thoughts, I could still hear the kid talking. Man, when you get him started, he just never stops!

"Then, sometimes, we would be allowed to travel. I got to go to Omashu and meet King Bumi. He was just a kid back then, but now, he's over a hundred years old. One time I even got to go to the Fire Nation, and I made a friend named Kuzon! He was really cool and a really good firebender, too." He sighed, suddenly growing more sober. "Things are so different now. We're not even really able to have friends from the Fire Nation or anything. I wish that I could see Kuzon and my other Fire Nation friends again or even make some more, but..."

"But they'd just try to kill us," I said, folding my arms. "The Fire Nation's bad news, believe me." I started. I hadn't meant to say that last part out loud.

_Maybe he didn't hear it. Maybe it was just in my head. I mean, these woods are kinda nuts...Maybe they're driving me nuts, too._

Unfortunately, Twinkletoes had heard that last bit. "What do you mean, Toph? Have you dealt with the Fire Nation before?" he asked. The curiosity in his voice made me cringe.

I thought for a moment. I could always not tell him...Or, I could tell him and let him hate me. I decided for the former. "I mean, it's a well-known fact that they wiped out an entire people. I would kinda consider that 'bad news'," I said dryly, trying to keep my heart from pounding too loudly. Despite my efforts, it still felt like the entire forest could hear me.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," he said softly, his voice sad. "I just wish there was a way for us to become friends again." Part of me wished he was talking about him and me, but then I remembered that Twinkletoes and I weren't exactly friends in the first place.

Shaking thoughts like those from my head, I scoffed, simply out of reflex. "The only way we can become 'friends' is for you to kick the firelord's buttand end this war already," I replied, blowing my bangs out of my face.

"You think I can do that?" he asked. Once again, Twinkletoes had an uncanny knack for exposing my own doubts.

"Of course you can," I said, trying to sound confident. "You're the Avatar. Once you learn earthbending, you'll be unstoppable. His Majesty Lord Nutcase will wish he had never been born!" I was half-tempted to finish the declaration with a haughty laugh, just to make it more convincing, but instead, I settled for spitting on the ground nearby.

I heard Aang let go of his breath in a sigh and then move on to another topic. "So, Toph, what about you? What were you really up to before you joined us?" he asked.

My heart absolutely raced. I didn't want to talk about this now. I didn't want to dig this stuff up, and I definitely didn't want to do it around Twinkletoes. So, pretending to be tired, I yawned and then shrugged.

"You know, stuff," I said and left it at that. Before he could reply, I said, a bit more loudly and hastily than was probably necessary, "I'm going to bed, Twinkletoes!"

He just shrugged, even though I could tell that he really wanted to know and was probably confused. "Okay...Goodnight, Toph," he called after me.

When I reached the earthen tent I had made, another dilemma hit me. In all honesty, I wasn't that tired. I was actually a bit restless, but going to bed early definitely beat being around Twinkletoes and talking about my _issues _by a sympathetic campfire, so I just sat down, made a comfy rock pillow, and breathed in the strange scents of the forest.

* * *

**Zuko:**

This was wonderful. Absolutely_ wonderful_. How was it that things like this happened to me? Earth Kingdom soldiers had ambushed us, probably having followed us from the stream or something! Why did these things always happen to me? But a more pressing question for right now was: How had they found us?

But before I could vocalize my thoughts to Katara, the first wave burst through the trees, scattering the branches and leaves in their paths and trampling the underbrush underfoot. I could tell from my vantage point that there were at least twenty of them, all armed with weapons and some with bending. And one of me. Great.

Soldier 1 rushed me with his katana drawn before I could get into my stance properly. I only barely avoided the blade, and instead of deflecting it, I ducked. It was a risky move, but I popped up just in time to engage Soldier 2, who was significantly dumber than his predecessor.

I easily kicked the crude blade from his hands, taking a short moment to enjoy the stupid, baffled expression on his face before catching the newly freed sword. The flat of my stolen saber connected with his head with a dull crack.

I turned again, not even bothering to watch him fall like a sack of rice, and came face-to-face with Soldier 1 again. His weapon had not been confiscated, a fact of which I was painfully reminded at that very moment. Fortunately, I reacted quickly enough to avoid a slash to my shoulder, but I was unprepared for his secondary assault.

As his sword came into contact with my side, meeting my flesh with a sickening, wet sound, I could only wish that I had worn my armor today. My green disguise was quickly stained Fire Nation crimson. But the color and the burn of my blood reminded me of something: my bending.

Rapidly, I shot a whirl of flame at both an adversary who had been approaching behind me (the coward) and Soldier 1, who had just been getting ready to strike again. Both charred corpses fell to the ground.

A crowd had formed around me, making it almost impossible for me to escape. I shrugged, dodging a few boulders they hurled at me. I've been in worse. Before anyone else could attack, I charged, brandishing a now-flaming katana.

More soldiers fell around me, but I knew that it wasn't enough, and I felt their swords nick me with each move I made against them. More blood warmed my already-steaming skin, and I felt my body begin to weaken.

_It just wasn't enough..._

That was when I heard the cries of more enemies falling around me, and I thought: _That's it! I'm saved. _And whoever it was was kicking some serious ass.

"ZUKO! Behind you!" came a voice, snapping me out of my awed reverie.

With speed that I didn't know I had, I took the sword that I now saw as mine and drove it into the man's stomach as hard as I could. I heard that satisfying sound of metal burying itself into flesh and then the wet thud of another body.

But my victory was short-lived as my rescuer's cry (Katara's cry!) rang out through the forest. I heard the sounds of earthbending, and through the mass of green people, I saw the gray-brown stone hurl itself towards my hands.

I moved too slowly to stop it, and the rocks attached themselves to my hands, trapping them behind my back.

_Damn it!_

And, struggle as I might, I couldn't break these manacles. The warm liquid that had been flowing down my arms continued to ebb out of me, falling to the ground in a red puddle. I was pulled to my knees by a couple of soldiers, but I continued struggling, trying to melt the accursed manacles with my bending but to no avail.

Katara was placed beside me, so I saw out of the corner of my eye. She was also worse for wear, her dress ripped and blood leaking through slices in the fabric in some places. Her hair had escaped its confines, but a snarl still decorated her face, signifying that the fight hadn't left her yet.

"What should we do with them, sir?" one soldier to my right asked the man directly in front of us, speaking as if we weren't there.

The higher-ranking officer gave us both a critical look, clearly sizing us up. "They've gotta be the firebenders who were sighted here a few days ago."

"I thought there was a girl," the other responded.

Katara was roughly drug upward, and I felt anger burning in the pit of my stomach for some reason. Part of me wanted to tell those bastards not to touch her. Instead, I kept quiet.

"We've got a girl right here."

"I'm not Fire Nation!" Katara protested furiously, thrashing against the man's grip.

"Silence," said the soldier as his commanding officer continued looking between Katara and me.

The blood loss was beginning to make me feel dizzy, and I felt my body involuntarily slump in its confines.

Finally, the highest-ranking officer spoke. "We take both firebenders to the village," he decided.

"I'm a _waterbender_!" shouted Katara furiously.

"Silence," another soldier repeated. "Don't make us knock you out."

Terror crossed her face, and I was close enough to lean in and whisper, "Don't worry. I've got a way for us to find our way back to camp. I have fire flakes, and I'm going to make a trail. Animals won't dare eat them. We're gonna get out of here. I promise."

The smile she gave me told me that as much as she didn't trust me, she trusted that I valued my life. I hoped, for my sake, that I could keep my promise.

**To be continued...**

* * *

**A/N: **Wow. I have been so inactive on this site. I started this chapter months ago but never finished. Now, I have started Chapter 6. No promises about my schedule. I've been still combating writer's block. Right now, I am speaking mostly Chinese during the day, so thinking in English after all of that is absolutely exhausting. If anyone has any ideas about where you think it's going, PM or review. If you think you know, you're probably wrong. :) Anyway, sorry once again for the long wait, but I just hate the idea of sacrificing quality and length in favor of faster updates. Unfortunately, right now, I don't have much of an option. Writing has taken a backseat in my life right now, but I hope that will change soon.

Keep reading! And have a nice day/night!


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